Air Pollution in Bangkok, as published, is getting worse and worse and worse each year.
Best to get yourself an air quality app.
There is something called ground level air pollution that you should be aware of.
Ground-level pollution comes from pollution emitted from cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, and chemical plants. Ozone pollution can even come from paints, cleaners, solvents, and motorized lawn equipment.
The warmer air rises and acts as a lid trapping the colder air close to the ground. Pollution, including that from road traffic is also trapped, so the air layer closest to the ground becomes more and more polluted.
How does this affect you?
Being exposed to air pollution and ground air pollution in Bangkok are as follows:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Respiratory infections
- Lung cancer
- Increased mortality and morbidity
- Decreased average life expectancy
- Exacerbation of chronic respiratory conditions
- Decreased lung function
FACT: In 2023, several regions in northern Thailand were forced to close due to haze pollution. The Ministry of Public Health reported that 376,165 people were affected by air pollution-related health concerns.
So, yes, this is a serious concern and should be taken seriously if you want to stay free of these kinds of health issues.
Be advised of ground air pollution when you see people cooking on the streets of Bangkok.
Traffic related air pollutants are a main concern of people living and working along the road.
So far a few researches have been conducted to study the adverse health effects of traffic-related air pollutants among street vendors in Thailand.
This study aimed to compare the level of traffic-related air pollutants, i.e. fine particulate (PM 2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO 2), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), carbon monoxide (CO) and the daily respiratory and other health symptoms reported by street vendors at roadside and residential areas.
A 61-day data collection panel study of the daily concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants in the two areas and daily respiratory and other health symptoms was conducted.
The concentrations of air pollutants PM 2.5 , SO 2 , NO 2 and CO in the roadside area were much greater than those at the residential area.
In addition, 64.0% and 17.0% of 24-hr PM 2.5 results in the roadside and residential areas respectively were above the standard of 65 mg/m 3.
An adjusted odds ratio of a series of daily reported health symptoms was estimated with 95% confidence interval between the roadside and residential street vendors.
The risk of roadside street vendors developing upper respiratory, lower respiratory and other health symptoms were 2.71-4.42, 3.62-7.82 and 1.54-2.80 times greater than those of residential street vendors , respectively.
It is possible to conclude that these excess respiratory and other health symptoms are very likely due to traffic-related air pollutants.
Many expats do and choose to ignore the facts.
Better hope they have good health insurance in the future.
Also, consuming street food in high PM 2.5 areas, is worsening the crisis.
To this day, expats wonder why so many Thai’s in Bangkok still wear masks?
It is not for covid, it is to protect against air pollution.
Bangkok is showing no signs of slowing down and the growth will make matters much worse in the future.
I would never, ever live in Bangkok.
The serious issues with Bangkok’s air pollution has been reported in 1,000’s of publications around the world.
Ignore it at your own risk!