Severe air pollution hits Thailand’s Chiang Mai city
The historical city of Chiang Mai has been under thick smog as a result of hazardous pollution levels in northern Thailand, triggering concerns about the impact on locals’ health and tourism, a key sector of the economy.
Thick smog blankets Chiang Mai city of Thailand on April 11, 2023. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The historical city of Chiang Mai hasbeen under thick smog as a result of hazardous pollution levels in northernThailand, triggering concerns about the impact on locals’ health and tourism, akey sector of the economy.
On April 11, the level of the fine particles PM2.5, which canenter the bloodstream, was more than 30 times the World Health Organisation'sannual guideline, according to global air monitoring platform IQAir.
IQAir ranked Chiang Mai among the most polluted places in theworld, above regular hotspots such as Lahore and Delhi.
According to the Thai Ministry of Health, nearly 2 millionpeople in the country have been hospitalised for respiratory illnessesrelated to air pollution so far this year.
Fine-dust pollution has also considerably affected tourism inChiang Mai.
Kanchaya Boontan, 40, who runs the CMSiam Travel tourism company, said that this year is bad. Forced to close allfour of her shops during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has just started to getback on her feet.
However, theThai Hotel Association Northern Chapter last week warned that domestic touristsare cancelling their Songkran New Year holiday reservations due to pollutionlevels.
Air pollution in this tourist city is mainly caused by forestfires and seasonal agricultural burning.
Satellite images released by Thailand’s Geo-Informaticsand Space Technology Development Agency showed thousands of forest fire hotspots last week,with the northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and MaeHong Son recording the most. Famous tourists destinations there almost “disappeared”in thick smog while many tourists having to quickly leave those places to avoidair pollution./.
Fires caused by farmers burning scrubland in preparation for crop planting across Laos have made authorities struggling to extinguish the fires as the hot weather continues.
Parts of the upper northern and northeastern areas of Thailand remained cloaked in hazardous levels of smoke haze on March 28 with the worst pollution still in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.
Many schools in Laos have been closed as the country is experiencing unprecedented high levels of PM2.5 - airborne particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter - due to wildfires and farmers burning scrubland in preparation for crop planting.
Government agencies in Thailand's Chiang Mai were ordered to let staff work from home to protect their health as levels of PM2.5 smog surged to almost unprecedented levels.
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Thick smog blankets Chiang Mai city of Thailand on April 11, 2023. (Photo: AFP/VNA) 
