Air Quality

The new and old air purifier filter

While my home town of Sydney discovers what air purifiers are from the savage bushfires, here in Chiang Mai I am well acquainted with them have 5 units in our house since last year.  Unfortunately, this year the air quality has worsened earlier in the year than in previous years.  This year we have had "red" PM2.5 reading in January already, whereas in previous years it has been at least February before the air pollution worsened.  Last year, I was caught out in not buying replacement filters quickly enough, so this year I've bought them early.

There was presentation by one of Chiang Mai's leading Paediatric Pulmonologists at our children's school recently about the air pollution in Chiang Mai.  I wasn't able to make it, but apparently some (or a lot?) Chiang Mai's air pollution is caused by the biggest poultry company in Thailand, which has been planting fields of corn to feed its pigs.  The feed burning practices for the supply of this animal grade corn is what is causing the air pollution.

The Thai people I have spoken see to agree with this view and they don't think much of the owner of this company.

I do hope there is an improvement of the air quality in Chiang Mai in the future as it seems to be worsening each year and impacting life here more and more.