Air pollution in Bangkok, Thailand forces more than 350 schools to close Environment News
The Thai capital ranked as the eighth most polluted city worldwide in terms of levels of microparticles.
More than 350 schools in Bangkok have been forced to close due to air pollution, authorities in the Thai capital have said.
The Thai capital has been struggling with hazardous air quality since midweek, when city authorities allowed schools to close and allowed people to work from home, according to Icarr, a partner of UN Environment. Gave advice. Program.
Six-wheeler trucks have also been banned from entering some parts of the city.
An AQI reading above 100 is considered unhealthy, while a reading above 200 is rated very unhealthy.
On Friday morning, when officials announced the closure of nearly 100 additional schools, the AQI stood at 185.
As of 11 a.m. local time, Bangkok was ranked as the eighth most polluted city in the world, behind Dhaka, Lahore, Kathmandu, Karachi, Delhi, Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City, according to ICAR.
Hundreds of schools remain closed, with only 100,000 of Bangkok’s more than 10 million residents having signed up for a voluntary work-from-home plan, according to the AFP news agency.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sitipunt said the increase in pollution was the result of seasonal burning of crops, vehicle emissions and burning of rubbish.
The AQI index, which was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, measures particle pollution including ground-level ozone, PM2.5 and PM10, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
Much of Bangkok’s pollution this week was caused by high concentrations of PM2.5, cancer-causing microparticles. The city’s PM2.5 levels on Friday morning stood at 108 micrograms per cubic metre, 21.6 times the World Health Organisation’s annual guideline.
Pollution levels are expected to ease over the weekend, reaching 71 by Monday, according to a forecast by IQAIR.
The Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Center said this week that the pollution could cost the city between three and six billion BAHT ($88-$177M), according to the Nation Thailand news site.
