Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

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deanagam

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by deanagam »

Gaybutton wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 9:17 am
gerefan wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 6:49 am Lovely day in Pattaya ...not a sign of any pollution at all.
Don't forget, air pollution is not necessarily visible.
Obviously, there's the old schools method, and the scientific way...
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

deanagam wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 10:08 am Obviously, there's the old schools method, and the scientific way...
For anything measurable, the scientific method should be better. Of course the usual scrutiny needs to be applied. Who is measuring, what are their motives ?
I suspect Thailand has sufficient independent measurement locations, but cannot prove it.
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

pong wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:40 pm Most Buses etc anywhere in Th run on gas and thus do not spew out diesel fumes.

Still no evidence provided to back up this claim.
When stuff is presented as fact, it needs to be correct or at least plausible.
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Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:12 pm Still no evidence provided to back up this claim.
When stuff is presented as fact, it needs to be correct or at least plausible.
I agree, but I think I should also point out that at the time of this post Pong has not logged onto the board since January 27, so he may not even be aware yet that his claim is in dispute.

The following article, published by the Bangkok Post in March of 2018, might at least in part back up Pong's claim:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... kok-routes
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

Considerable extrapolation is required to get from this to the majority of buses in Thailand.

Wikipedia suggests that even in Bangkok, the majority are diesel. That corresponds with what I see.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok ... _Authority
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Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:07 pm Considerable extrapolation is required to get from this to the majority of buses in Thailand.
No matter what those buses are using for fuel, the sheer numbers of them, especially the poorly maintained ones, have to be a major contributing factor to the pollution.

I think the solution is development of electric vehicles and development of clean burning, renewable resource fuels. If that is not done - and now, sooner or later the planet will run out of fossil fuels, but by that time we'll probably all be dead from the poisoned air.

I don't know how anyone can say we can just continue going on the way we have ever since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Look what we've done. We don't have air fit to breathe. We don't have food fit to eat. We don't have air fit to breathe. But we do have untold tons of non-biodegradable waste. I believe the handwriting is on the wall for mass extinction - and we will have done it to ourselves. We won't need an asteroid to be what wipes us out.

Astronomers are trying to find planets similar to this one. I hope they succeed, but with such vast distances how are we supposed to get there? And even if they ever figure out a way, what happens then? Do we start this pollution sequence all over again?
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

The Thai leadership clearly couldn't care less about the pollution, as they continually do almost nothing.
Electric vehicles and so on would be a good response for American and European cities.

Places like Thailand have much worse air quality and could easily improve it by simple measures, like banning burning, getting the worst polluting vehicles off the road and discouraging excess vehicle use. Electrification would be a "next level", but Thailand doesn't even do the basics at present.

Incidentally, today I arrived back in Bangkok by train. In the last few miles, the train had to wait for the lights at 3 junctions. That never happens in countries that want to get people out of cars and onto public transport.
The train should glide unimpeded into the station, full of passengers, whilst at the same time car and pick up use should be discouraged.
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

My current Bangkok hotel has an air quality meter in the reception area. This is is new, as they didn't have it on display on my previous visits (including twice in December).

It is supposed to be able to measure indoor air quality itself and display external readings from the web. It's currently only displaying the external web reading, which is exactly what the free app on my phone shows on one page.
Actually, the phone app is better for web data, as I can choose to plausibility check readings on the map.
For instance, the Air Visual app shows one abnormally low reading in Nakhon Sawan. A nearby sensor shows a more plausible reading. I reported the unusual reading several days ago, but it's still up.

I shall have a play with the sensor in the hotel to see if it can display it's own reading.
It's one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/IQAir-AirVisual- ... B0784TZFRW

If I were living here, it would be tempting to get one of these, but a higher priority would be an air filter (non-ozone generating type).

Incidentally, the sensor reading on the east side of Pattaya has disappeared off the Air Visual site. The only remaining readings are 2 in north Pattaya, one of which is a proper measurement and the other is a satellite estimate. Of course, I'm only interested in air quality about 1.7m off the ground and am not sure how well a satellite could estimate that.
Jun

Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Jun »

Having downloaded the instructions for the air quality meter and read them, I believe the meter in reception is showing it's own reading only and is not connected to the internet.
So the indoor reading is 154, similar to the nearest outdoor readings of 140-155.

Reception is on the ground floor and the door is usually open.

As Gaybutton suggested earlier, the air inside comes from outside. If there is a prolonged period of high pollution, then surely indoor air quality should eventually match outdoor air quality ? Unless, you have a mechanism for adding or removing pollution indoors.
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Re: Air pollution problems in Bangkok - and it's not very good in Pattaya either

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2020 4:26 pm Unless, you have a mechanism for adding or removing pollution indoors.
Who would want a mechanism for adding pollution?
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