A disturbing episode of air pollution hits Bangkok. This week some 200,000 people in the hospitals of the capital of the kingdom for respiratory and cardiac disorders, aggravated or not, according to the vulnerability of each one. But everyone agrees, it’s hard to breathe properly in Bangkok right now.
The international alert thresholds for fine particle pollution (PM 2.5) were recently crossed in the capital and in the north of the country. The situation is still not improving. For example, on March 8, the air pollution monitoring unit recorded a 24-hour average fine particle level of 70 micrograms per cubic meter in Pathum Wan, an ultra-central district of Bangkok, while the World Health Organization (WHO) only recommends 15.