Air quality in all of Bangkok’s 50 districts has reached the health-threatening, or Orange level today, with the amount of PM2.5 dust in the atmosphere ranging from 41.9μg-73.8μg (microns), the Pollution Control Department reports. The standard PM2.5 level is 37.5μg.

The department listed ten areas in the capital and its surrounding provinces where the PM2.5 level is at its highest. They are:

• Bang Phut sub-district in Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi, 73.8μg
• Lat Phrao Road at Soi 95 in Wang Thong Lang district, 73.1μg
• Liab Waree Road in Nong Chok district, 71.8μg
• Paknam sub-district, Mueang district of Samut Prakan, 71.3μg
• Khlong Kum sub-district in Bueng Kum district, 72.1μg
• Soi Nikhom Ban Rodfai Thon Buri in Bangkok Noi district, 66.6μg
• Narathiwat Road in Bang Rak district, 66.2μg
• Bang Na-Trat Road in Bang Na district, 65.1μg
• Mahachai sub-district, Muang district of Samut Sakhon, 64.8μg
• Srinagarind Road in Prawet district, 63.6μg

This morning, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Patcharawat Wongsuwan, took a helicopter ride to observe hotspots in Lop Buri, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces.

He said his ministry will coordinate with the Ministry of Interior to urge provincial governors to tighten up controls on hotspots caused by farm waste burning and forest fires in their respective provinces.

The deputy prime minister said that the current dust problem in central provinces started last November and is expected to peak in February, when the same problem is expected to worsen in northern provinces as well. So, it is necessary for governmental agencies and the public to cooperate to ease the problem.

The Geo-Informatics Space Technology and Development Agency (GISTDA) is cooperating with the Office of National Research, Pollution Control Department, Kasetsart and Chiang Mai universities in monitoring the PM2.5 problem on hourly basis, using satellite derived information.

According to GISTDA, 25 provinces, including Bangkok, have excessive PM2.5 levelsm 310 hotspots were detected across the country yesterday, of which 136 were on farm land wh ile 1,516 hotspots were also detected in Cambodia, 270 in Myanmar, 228 in Vietnam and 181 in Laos.