Chiang Mai : how bad is the pollution?

Acoording to Frommer%26#39;s, ';The once charming city of Chiang Mai suffers from not just acute pollution but also....deadly smake haze in dry season.'; Can anyone tell me if the pollution is really that bad in Chiang Mai? Frommers makes it sound horrible....

Chiang Mai : how bad is the pollution?

Colorlady,

The air pollution in CM is at SEVERE. The local authorities have stated that school children should NOT exercise outdoors. The levels are around 200+ppm/c3m which is about double the Thai accepted levels and almost 5 times the level set by UN.

Until we get some rain it is not likely to change.

The local authorities seem helpless to stop the locals from burning the country-side!

Chiang Mai : how bad is the pollution?

Thanks for responding to my message. I%26#39;m sorry to hear that the pollution is as bad as Frommer%26#39;s described.

Hi

When I was there in January I did notice alot of people wearing surgical masks not only on their motor bikes but also the vendors. I didn%26#39;t notice it too too much except when I was in a tuk tuk one day being caught up in the mass of traffic ...

People burn their lawn instead of mowing,I guess lawnmowers are expensive or their Lazy

Hi CT!

I%26#39;m going to copy for you an article I wrote here in February. I apologize to those who may already have read it.

David

. . .

We visited north Thailand in December, and we found haze and smoke a problem everywhere in Thailand. It%26#39;s bad, and not just in Chiang Mai.

Guide books describe Thailand as a sort of Shangri-la -- wonderful people, year-round delightful climate, unbelievably low cost of living, and it%26#39;s true! What they usually leave out, though, is the air quality. It%26#39;s worse than New York or anything I%26#39;m used to in North America, and must be dreadful for anyone with a respiratory condition.

We rented a car and drove, so my experiences are not simply for Chiang Mai. Everywhere, even in remote hamlets in north and central Thailand, we found that the morning air tasted crackly, with a hickory flavor. Lots of people wore cloth masks over their mouths and noses. It%26#39;s not industrial pollution or car exhaust. I don%26#39;t know if February is different (although there seemed nothing special about this December, 2008) or if the rainy season washes the smoke out of the air.

How bad is it? We drove to the top of Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. People told us that we%26#39;d appreciate the clear, fresh air up there, and it%26#39;s true, but I thought they were merely speaking the way people do generally about any high country, such as up in the Berkshires.

The day of our visit was brilliantly clear and sunny, like most dry-season days. At the top, however, I observed a dark line of clouds in the northeast, the direction of Chiang Mai. In Canada, a dark line of clouds usually means a cold front coming toward you, heralding a showery period, but no bad weather of any kind had been forecast.

Then I realized what I was seeing. That wall of cloud was the top of the layer of smoke and haze over northern Thailand! We%26#39;d driven above it, and were now looking down on the pollution. It was so pronounced that it looked like storm clouds!

Happy travels and let me know if I can help further!

David

capetien10@gmail.com

When i was at the Doi Inthanon early December .

I could see the mountains.

When i was ther early Febuary, i could not see the Hills for Smog/smoke.

It is safe to a degree in Chiang Mai.

It seoends on where you are if in traffic you will need Protection.

It also depends on when you are gooing to Chiang Mai.

next month it wil be school holidays for 2 months.

I also think soon that all the rice fields will be set alight ready for when the rainy season starts.

I hope this helps a little.

Ed

Thanks for the helpful info - depressing as it is. I%26#39;ve decided not to travel to Thailand since our trip is going to be next December/January and from your report and others the pollution at that time is terrible. Instead I%26#39;m looking at Laos and Cambodia.

CT,

In the interests of clarity, let me just add to what I wrote.

In Chiang Mai, and everywhere else I visited in north Thailand, the skies were cloudless, even with the crackly air. Nothing impeded the sunshine.

At night, however, the haze was sufficient to conceal the dimmer stars. When I go to a southerly destination, I like to go stargazing, to find the stars that are forever hidden from us in the north temperate zone. In Chiang Mai and most of northern and central Thailand, only the brighter stars could be seen.

An exception came at Fang National Park, with its geysers, about 70 miles north of Chiang Mai. At Fang that night, far from the city lights, the air was clear enough that I could see most everything.

On the other hand, at the thoroughly remote location of Phu Nam Resort, about 35 miles west of Loei and on the other side of a range of hills from the Mekong Valley, the air tasted crackly that morning. After the sun came out and the morning mist cleared away, the air remained hazy.

Remember that since these problems don%26#39;t seem to be the result of industrial pollution or car exhaust, there%26#39;s no guarantee that you%26#39;ll find things any different in Laos or Cambodia. If the cause is peons burning vegetation, as some have suggested, then I expect you%26#39;ll find it all over southeast Asia, even in Communist principalities. You don%26#39;t need prosperity to set fire to your grass.

For a casual tourist, unless you have a respiratory condition that is aggravated by air pollution, none of this proved in the least harmful to us. I can see why the local people often wear masks, but a brief exposure as a visitor is not going to hurt you. (Especially if you were used to commuting to New York every day anyway.)

David

Hi, we are in Chiang Rai now and just left Chiang Mai, we have not seen the sky since arriving in the north however suffered no problems with breathing, looking forward to moving south away from the grey!!