Air quality in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani

What is air pollution like in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani?

Current air pollution readings in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani taken in late September of 2021 show US AQI readings of 75, a figure that would place Bang Kadi into the 'moderate' pollution rating bracket for the day and time in which it was taken. This requires a US AQI reading of 51 to 100 to be classified as such and is color-coded as yellow. Each further rating for air pollution has its own darker color indicator, with red, purple and maroon indicating the most hazardous levels of air pollution, which usually only present themselves during instances of forest or farmland fires, particularly when a lack of prevailing rain or wind is present to clean out the air. Other US AQI readings present were 20 and 40, indicating a 'good' level of air quality and showing that Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani can have alternating levels of air pollution, which tend to typically rise towards the end of the year and affect the earlier months of the following year quite prominently.

What are some causes of higher air pollution levels in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani?

Air pollution has a prevalence in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani due to many of the reasons that afflict other cities, towns and regions throughout Thailand as well as neighboring countries. These include ones such as the burning of vast swathes of forest or farmland, conducted in a practice known as slash and burn farming. Whilst this is most prevalent in the northern regions of the country, it can also affect many other provinces, causing the pollution levels to spike drastically towards the end of the year and stay elevated into the early months of the following year, with some cited figures from years past demonstrating this, which will be discussed in the last two questions of the article. Other causes of air pollution in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani include exhaust fumes emitted from the numerous vehicles in use, with a large amount of them being of the aged or defunct variety. Whilst many steps have been taken to remove those excess pollution-causing vehicles from the roads, particularly in major cities, their use is still prevalent throughout many rural areas or outside the larger or more densely populated regions. Due to the extremely poor combustion process that takes place (often coupled with low-quality fuels or fossil fuels), considerably higher amounts of noxious oil vapors are released into the atmosphere, along with the usual chemical compounds such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (which forms afterward as the various pollutants are exposed to solar radiation, thus forcing a reaction take place which forms ozone, or smog as it is more commonly known as). Other causes include factories and power plants, which also rely heavily on burning fossil fuels to meet their power needs. Road repairs, construction sites and other similar areas also release high amounts of ultrafine or coarse particles into the air, raising the PM2.5 and PM10 levels, which can cause prominent spikes in the particle pollution readings. The combustion of raw and organic materials remains as one of the more prevalent causes of pollution in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani, compounded further by anthropogenic and industrial activities.

What health problems can present themselves from overexposure to pollution in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani?

Continuous exposure to higher amounts of polluted air in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani can cause a large number of highly negative health effects and other serious conditions, particularly pertinent to those individuals who fall under the sensitive group's bracket. Of note though, is that even healthy adults may fall ill or sustain damage when air pollution exposure is excessive, or exposure takes place over a long period (particularly prominent for those who live closer to highly polluted areas, which include industrial districts or near busy roads and highways, where the air quality will be poor for a majority of the year). Many conditions that can arise as a result would be short-term ones such as dry throat and coughs, as well as chest pains and subsequent infections of the respiratory tract and lungs. These typically resolve themselves fairly quickly when exposure to air pollution is ceased. They can, however, also develop into more long-term or chronic issues, with continuous chest infections and coughing leading to the scarring of lung tissue, which often results in permanently decreased lung capacity.

Additionally, the subsequent scarring or damage and inflammation to the tissue of the lungs will make individuals far more vulnerable to a whole host of respiratory distress, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) presenting itself. COPD is an umbrella term that encompasses a plethora of lung and respiratory tract ailments, usually resulting in shortness of breath and other unwanted or adverse symptoms. Breathing in polluted air when an individual already suffers from pre-existing conditions can cause them to worsen, and thus progress into potentially more life-threatening forms of said illness. Some of the conditions that can be classified under the COPD bracket are aggravated forms of asthma, as well as emphysema, pneumonia and bronchitis. Other forms of damage that can happen within the body include increased risk of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and arrhythmias, as well as ischemic heart disease and many other cardiac or pulmonary conditions that can bring about decreased quality of life as well as lower an individual’s life expectancy in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani.

When is the air at its most hazardous to breathe in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani?

Observing the PM2.5 figures collected throughout 2020, it can be seen that the end of the year was when Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani was at its most highly polluted. Due to a lack of properly calibrated data available for the earlier months of the year, it is a possibility that the most polluted months are not on record, as many cities and towns throughout Thailand display their worst levels of air pollution in January and February. For Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani, the months of April, November and December all had the highest readings, coming in on the higher end of the 'moderate' air quality bracket, which requires a PM2.5 reading of 12.1 to 35.4 μg/m³ for classification.

When is the air quality improved in Ban Bang Kadi Pathum Thani?

Air quality levels showed more appreciable readings in the months of June through to August, with June and July coming in with 'good' air quality readings, the only two months of the year to do so. Their readings were 11 μg/m³ and 10.7 μg/m³ respectively, making the air at this time of the year significantly freer from haze, smoke, hazardous particles and other air contaminants.