Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha today warned members of the public and the private sector to significantly reduce their carbon and dust emissions or face tougher action by the government. His advice came as the haze and general pollution in Bangkok’s atmosphere appears to be worsening.

The Prime Minister said that he would like all stakeholders to cooperate by reducing all harmful elements entering the atmosphere. He said that the Interior Ministry was prepared to deploy mobile water sprays to reduce dust particles.

The cabinet today discussed the activation of plans prepared by the Pollution Control Department to ease the haze problem.  The plans were designed to deal with haze on four levels, namely where PM2.5 dust particles are fewer than 50 microns, where PM2.5 particulate ranges from 51-75 microns, where PM2.5 particulate ranges from 76-100 microns and areas in which the PM2.5 dust particles exceed 100 microns.

The Prime Minister said that, if the PM2.5 level exceeds 100 microns, the haze will have become a national problem, warranting a meeting of a national-level committee to deal with it.

However, he noted that the current problem was caused mainly by stale air from a cold front from China, preventing air circulation and, hence, trapping dust particles over areas such as Bangkok and its suburbs.