Though the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has said that Bangkok’s sudden smog issue will only affect the health of “sensitive” people, others who have never had issues report inability to breathe as the city continues to sit under a smoggier sky than usual.
The MOPH admits that the pollution problem is unhealthy, causing respiratory problems and an increasing trend of conjunctivitis in some areas, according to Thai News Bureau.
The public has been told that they can be outdoors and do all activities, including outdoor exercise, as normal. However, they have also advised those with respiratory problems, children, and pregnant women to watch out for itching, eye irritation, runny noses, coughs, sore throats, breathing problems, chest pains, headaches, and more.
At many of the city’s chi-chi international schools, they have been keeping the students indoors during their usual outdoor recess periods.
As a solution, the government began a cloud-seeding operation on Monday in hopes of makin’ it rain, but, so far, it’s been unsuccessful. However, the level of the level of dangerous small particulate matter in the air, known as PM2.5, has gone down since last week anyway, as most people can see from simply looking at the sky.
Most PM2.5 levels around the city are coming in at over 50 micrograms per cubic air meter. The Thai standard says that anything below 50 is a safe daily standard, though the World Health Organization says that half of that, 25 micrograms per cubic air meter, is the highest acceptable level, reported The Nation.
The attempted rain-making operation, performed by the Royal Rain-making and Agricultural Aviation Department, will keep trying to tease out the rain until the smog level goes down to acceptable levels
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