Air pollution in Thailand’s Bangkok forces more than 350 schools to close

Thai superior ranked arsenic eighth-most polluted metropolis worldwide arsenic microparticles levels soar.

More than 350 schools successful Bangkok person been forced to adjacent owed to aerial pollution, authorities successful Thailand’s superior person said.

The Thai superior has been struggling with hazardous aerial prime since midweek, erstwhile metropolis authorities gave schools support to adjacent and advised radical to enactment from location aft the aerial prime scale (AQI) deed 159, according to IQAir, a spouse of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Six-wheel trucks person besides been restricted from entering parts of the city.

An AQI speechmaking supra 100 is considered unhealthy, portion a speechmaking supra 200 is rated precise unhealthy.

On Friday morning, erstwhile authorities announced the closure of astir 100 further schools, the AQI stood astatine 185.

As of 11am section time, Bangkok ranked arsenic the eighth-most polluted metropolis successful the world, down Dhaka, Lahore, Kathmandu, Karachi, Delhi, Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City, according to IQAir.

While hundreds of schools stay closed, lone astir 100,000 of Bangkok’s much than 10 cardinal residents person signed up for a voluntary work-from-home scheme, according to the AFP quality agency.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the emergence successful contamination was the effect of the seasonal burning of crops, conveyance emissions and the burning of rubbish.

The AQI index, which was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, measures ground-level ozone, particle contamination including PM2.5 and PM10, c monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Much of Bangkok’s contamination this week was caused by a precocious attraction of PM2.5, cancer-causing microparticles. The city’s PM2.5 levels deed 108 micrograms per cubic metre connected Friday morning, 21.6 times the World Health Organization’s yearly guideline.

Pollution levels are expected to subside implicit the weekend, reaching 71 by Monday, according to a forecast by IQAir.

The Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Centre said this week that the contamination could outgo the metropolis betwixt 3 and six cardinal baht ($88-$177m) if it continued for a month, according to the Nation Thailand quality site.

Source

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies