Thailand: According to officials, this week’s air pollution in Thailand caused nearly 200,000 hospital admissions, with Bangkok blanketed in a dangerous haze.

The Thai city, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and home to an estimated 11 million people, has been covered for days by an ugly yellow-grey mixture of exhaust from vehicles, industrial pollution, and smoke from burning agricultural land.

The public health ministry stated that, air pollution had caused more than 1.3 million illnesses in the country since the beginning of the year, with roughly 200,000 people being admitted to hospitals this week alone. A physician with the ministry named Dr. Kriangkrai Namthaisong recommended pregnant women and young children stay inside.

Dr. Namthaisong noted that everyone outside should wear a top-notch N95 anti-pollution mask. City authorities advised residents to work from home in late January and early February of 2023 when there was another pollution peak.

In the event that the situation worsened, the governor of Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, who was elected last year on promises to enhance the city’s ecology, said they would not hesitate to issue another similar order. According to the public health ministry, the most harmful PM2.5 particles, which are so small they can enter the bloodstream, were found in unacceptable amounts in 50 Bangkok districts. At the same time, on 9th March 2023, they remained far over WHO recommendations.

Based on the government’s pollution control department statement, most of Bangkok’s PM2.5 levels have been above safe for the past three days. In the northern city of Chiang Mai, which is located in an agricultural area where farmers burn crop stubble at this time of year, the situation was worse. The well-known tourist destination was listed as the third-most polluted city in the world by monitoring company IQAir around noon (0500 GMT).

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