Air quality in Sawankhalok

Is there polluted air in Sawankhalok?

Sawankhalok has varying levels of air pollution present throughout the year, with certain months showing more appreciable readings, whilst others in the past have come in with highly elevated pollution readings. For its overall yearly average, the year of 2020 will be referred to in the following questions (particularly regarding the months of the year are the most polluted). In late May of 2021, Sawankhalok presented with a US AQI reading of 55, placing it into the ‘moderate’ pollution ratings bracket, on the lower end of the scale.

This rating is color coded as yellow, and requires a US AQI reading of anywhere between 51 to 100 to be classified as such. When the air is classified as being ‘moderately’ polluted, the general public may typically not experience any symptoms, yet vulnerable individuals may start to have a mild degree of irritation to their respiratory tract.

Looking at the US AQI readings collected over the whole period of May 2021, it can be seen that it was a time period in which the air quality was generally free from overwhelming clouds of smoke, haze or fine particles (with PM2.5 being one of the most damaging pollutants found in the atmosphere). There were lows of 12 and 21, readings that would place Sawankhalok into the ‘good’ ratings bracket (0 to 50 required), color coded as green and representing a fine quality of air, being of a satisfactory standard and presenting little or no risk to the health of the population, even amongst vulnerable individuals.

In the same time period, highs of 67 and 75 were also recorded, putting them still within the moderate pollution bracket, indicating that May had air quality ranging from good to moderate, well within the acceptable range set out by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which deems any reading on the US AQI scale between 0 to 150 as being acceptable.

However, despite the aforementioned data being descriptive of a city with a good quality of air, and with many other months coming in with even better air cleanliness, it must be noted that the months that are typically within the infamous ‘burning season’ period show extreme highs in their air pollution levels, with PM2.5 recordings from 2020 showing some very high readings that would cause all manner of ill health effects to the population as a whole.

Observing the average air quality taken over 2020, Sawankhalok came in with a PM2.5 reading of 29.4 μg/m³, placing it into the ‘moderate’ pollution ratings bracket. Whilst this is still color coded as yellow in the same vein as the US AQI rating system (for ease of use when navigating the air quality maps and graphs present on the IQAir website), the PM2.5 measurement is taken in micrograms per cubic meter, or μg/m³. To achieve this moderate rating, a PM2.5 reading of anywhere between 12.1 to 35.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such. This reading also placed Sawankhalok in 23^rd place out of all cities ranked in Thailand over 2020, as well as 409^th place out of all cities ranked worldwide in the same year, indicating that Sawankhalok could still do much to improve its poor ranking on the global circuit, as well as domestically.

What are some health risks that come with breathing pollution in Sawankhalok?

Before some of the health ailments are mentioned, the aforementioned vulnerable groups will be discussed in further detail, so that those who belong to such demographics may take the appropriate or preventative measures in order to safeguard from the highly negative effects that excessive exposure to pollution can bring.

These groups include people such as young children and babies, as well as pregnant mothers also being counted as highly vulnerable. The elderly are also highly at risk due to their predisposition towards being badly affected by respiratory distress or other similar ailments. Those with a hypersensitivity towards fine particles or chemical compounds would also do well to avoid high pollution exposure, along with those that have pre-existing health conditions or compromised immune systems.

Regarding the main health issues, they would be ones such as dry coughs, chest pain and respiratory infections, along with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an umbrella term that contains within it a number of further conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis and pneumonia, as well as asthma.

Cancer rates can soar, along with other more severe conditions such as heart attacks, arrythmias, strokes and even death presenting themselves, with countries that have high pollution levels often having a large correlation with an elevated mortality rate, directly linked to the pollution levels.

What are the main types of air pollution present in Sawankhalok?

Some of the main pollutants found in the air would be the ones that go into calculating the overall US AQI number, which itself is aggregated from chemical compounds such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), as well as the two forms of particulate matter, PM2.5 and PM10 (with PM2.5 being the far more dangerous of the two, due to its extremely small size of 2.5 micrometers or less).

This size gives it the ability to pass over into the bloodstream via the alveoli in the lungs, causing a whole host of health issues and damage to the various organ systems (with the lungs, heart, liver and kidneys being prominently affected). Other pollutants include black carbon, dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Which time of the year has the highest pollution levels in Sawankhalok?

Observing the pollution levels recorded over the course of 2020 once again, it can be seen that several of the months that fall into Thailand’s infamous burning season being the most gravely affected. The so called burning season, practiced by farmers who set fire to vast swathes of forest and farmland areas, typically takes place between December and April of the following year.

The months that came in with the highest levels of PM2.5 fell within this time period, with January through to April having the highest PM2.5 count on record. Their respective readings were 85.9 μg/m³, 72.5 μg/m³, 65.6 μg/m³ and 52.4 μg/m³. This made January the most polluted month of the year by a significant amount with its reading of 85.9 μg/m³, putting it within the ‘unhealthy’ ratings bracket (55.5 to 150.4 μg/m³ required).

When does the air quality see improvements in Sawankhalok?

Despite having some very high readings of air pollution at years end, the PM2.5 readings in the months following came in with extremely clean readings, falling within the world health organization's (WHO's) target goal at 10 μg/m³ or less for the best quality of air.

The months of June through to October all achieved this rating, coming in with readings of 4.4 μg/m³, 9.4 μg/m³, 6.8 μg/m³, 7.4 μg/m³ and 8 μg/m³ respectively, making June the cleanest month of the year.