Bangkok is the 13th most polluted city in Asia, according to research based upon the amount of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the air.
We’re actually kind of surprised that our fair city didn’t rank higher on the list, but when one considers that China is located in Asia things make a bit more sense.
A Nation story on this research didn’t include what 12 Asian cities topped Bangkok.
“On average, the amount of PAHs in Bangkok is 2.2 times higher than the safe limit,” Associate Professor Siwat Pongpiajun, head of the NIDA Centre for Research and Development of Disaster Prevention and Management, told the newspaper.
NIDA examined cancer risks from PAHs in samples collected at seven air-quality monitoring stations in Bangkok from 2006 to 2009.
We can only imagine that the massive increase in cars in Bangkok since 2009 has only worsened PAH levels. One has to wonder what took NIDA so long to analyze this data…
During the study, Bangkok had an average of 554 picograms per cubic meter of air – a safe limit is 250 picograms. The highest PAH readings were from the Keha Chumchon Din Daeng monitoring station, where numbers exceeded 990 picograms.
Unsurprisingly, those living by roadsides faced the biggest danger from PAHs.
Siwat said that residents in Beijing suffer PAH levels as high as 24,600 picograms per one cubic metre of air. “That is 98 times higher than the safe limit,” he said.
Photo: Zanyasan Tanantpapat
