Air quality in Si Chiang Mai

Is the air in Si Chiang Mai very polluted?

The air quality in Si Chiang Mai has seen fluctuations in its US AQI levels in the early months of 2022. They have swung from higher readings such as 147, which would place Si Chiang Mai into the 'unhealthy for sensitive groups' rating bracket. This air quality bracket indicates that many of the more vulnerable inhabitants of Si Chiang Mai would be at a far greater risk of developing adverse health issues, as well as having pre-existing ones get worse. Those who are considered at risk include the elderly, young children and babies, pregnant mothers, as well as those with poor or compromised immune systems, often due to the presence of pre-existing health issues, with the two often being complementary. Despite these higher readings present in January of 2022, Si Chiang Mai had US AQI readings of as low as 65 in February, indicating a slightly better 'moderate' air quality rating (51 to 100 US AQI required for classification). Whilst this is significantly better than many other cities, towns and provinces across the northern portion of Thailand (for some very well known reasons, mainly the burning of farm or forestland that take place across many rural areas and even in adjacent countries such as Myanmar, which can cause great clouds of smoke, haze and deadly fine particles to drift across the border and cause air pollution levels to skyrocket), it could still stand to improve by a significant amount. PM2.5 concentrations remained relatively high, with readings that were taken in mid to late February of 2022 coming in at 4.6 times over the World Health Organization's (WHO's) air quality exposure guideline, for what can be considered as the safest or optimal level of air pollution. As such, the air in Si Chiang Mai can be subject to spikes in air pollution that can cause a great deal of harm to many of its citizens.

What forms of air pollutants can be found in Si Chiang Mai?

Some more prominent pollutants that can be found in areas around Si Chiang Mai as well as surrounding districts and cities include ones that predominantly stem from combustion sources. These on their own are of an extremely large number, with open burn fires, natural disasters (such as forest fires, houses or buildings catching fire), combustion within vehicle engines as well as boilers in factories and other similar industrial sites, as was mentioned earlier in the question regarding what the main causes of polluted air in Si Chiang Mai are. Whilst the aforementioned open burn fires, or slash and burn farming practices as they are more commonly referred to, are of much greater concern in the northern regions of the country, they can still be found to a lesser degree dotted around various provinces of Thailand, and can cause large amounts of pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and black carbon to be released into the atmosphere, along with the other pollutants that go into calculating the US AQI aggregate. The chemicals used to calculate this US AQI figure include nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, as well as the two main forms of particle pollution, PM2.5 and PM10. Of these two, the smaller PM2.5 is well known as the far more dangerous, due to its minute size of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter allowing it to bypass the bodies defense systems and lodge deep within the tissue of the lungs (with more on this being discussed in the following health issues question). PM2.5 and some forms of PM10 can consist of materials such as water droplets and vapor, along with a variety of other liquids that can be aerosolized. Other materials include mold and fungal spores, bacteria, metals, nitrates and sulfates, along with finely ground silica dust, which can have a carcinogenic effect when inhaled. Some examples of the aforementioned VOCs include chemical compounds such as benzene, styrene, methylene chloride, toluene, xylene and formaldehyde. Their volatile nature allows them to maintain a gaseous state at much lower temperatures, thus making them considerably easier to breathe, and would be found prevalently around inhabited areas of Si Chiang Mai, due to their release from everything from fires, cars, factories as well as even from household items. VOCs are one of the main sources of indoor air pollution and can emanate from products such as glue, paint, varnish, as well as aerosols such as deodorant, scented candles and other toiletries. These are some of the more prevalent air pollutants that may be found around Si Chiang Mai, with certain areas such as busy roads and intersections that see a high level of rush hour traffic having higher concentrations of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone and black carbon. Extra care should be taken around such areas, and wearing fine particle filtering masks can aid greatly in the reduction of hazardous material inhalation.

What health risks come from breathing polluted air in Si Chiang Mai?

Air pollution in Si Chiang Mai can be extremely detrimental to one’s health, so not only is it dangerous to individuals who live in Si Chiang Mai, but it can also have long-lasting effects that can cause a myriad of health issues in the next generation due to damage to the environment, as well as residual pollutants being left in the soil and water, as well as making their way into the food chain and thus ending up in people. Some more common health issues include dry coughs and accompanying chest infections, along with some ailments that fall under the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) bracket. These include asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and pneumonia, all of which can be both caused, and made significantly worse by breathing excessive (or even smaller) amounts of pollution in Si Chiang Mai. Other issues include early deaths linked directly to pollution exposure, with terminal illnesses such as various forms of cancer contributing to this. Heart attacks, strokes and many other pulmonary or cardiac issues may present themselves, depending on the individual and their medical history, or predisposition to being affected by certain pollutants.

Why are pollution levels high in Si Chiang Mai?

The main causes of higher levels of air pollution in Si Chiang Mai come predominantly, or more consistently, from vehicles, with a large number of cars, motorbikes as well as heavy-duty trucks and lorries all giving out pollution and noxious fumes, particularly if the fuel being used is of lower quality or the vehicle itself is worn down and aged. Other sources of air pollution present in Si Chiang Mai include emissions from power plants and factories, road repairs and construction sites (as well as poorly paved roads also contributing to excessive amounts of dust and finely ground materials being thrown into the air), along with instances of smoke from the slash and burn farming sites being blown over Si Chiang Mai from neighboring provinces and cities.

The use of fossil fuels in power plants, factories and other industrial sites can give off a variety of different pollutants, some of which will be mentioned in the following question regarding which types of pollution can be found in the air in Si Chiang Mai. It is worth noting however that the more extreme spikes in air pollution are most likely to come from either natural disaster fires or man-made ones whereby vast swathes of forest or farmland are purposely set alight to clear crops and trees and return nutrients to the soil. Pollution from vehicles and factories can be considered as more ambient, or year-round causes due to them taking place throughout much of the year. Meanwhile, sudden fires can cause the PM2.5 and US AQI levels to skyrocket, and as such, they are the main concerns to watch out for in regards to the level of cleanliness in the air in Si Chiang Mai.

When does air quality start to decline in Si Chiang Mai?

The air quality in Si Chiang Mai is most likely to be at its worst, showing the highest readings of US AQI and PM2.5 towards the end of the year. Additionally, the months of the following year are also typically higher in terms of their air pollution levels, showing significantly higher readings of air pollution from past years in terms of its PM2.5 concentrations (with PM2.5 being such a deadly pollutant that it is usually used to rank different cities and countries from years past, based purely on the PM2.5 figure). These conclusions are a result of many readings taken from cities all over Thailand, a much greater amount of them seeing consistent patterns cropping up each year. Despite this, it is of great importance to note that despite these repeatedly occurring patterns in air pollution levels, deviations can and do occur, and as such these should be taken as guidelines for when pollution levels may have spikes in its air pollution readings. With that important note stated, we can reiterate the issue that Si Chiang Mai is most or at least more than likely to see its highest air pollution levels in the last few months of the year, typically starting around September, but sometimes starting earlier. This continues through to the end of the year. Furthermore, the early months of the following year continue to see heightened pollution readings, with some of the highest figures of US AQI and PM2.5 cropping up from through to March or even April. As was mentioned, changes can always occur and air quality readings should be kept up to date, with these being available both on this page as well as the AirVisual app.