Air pollution has expanded today to cover 39 areas along busy roads and farther away in and around Bangkok compared to yesterday’s 27 areas.
The Pollution Control Department reported today that all the 39 areas were found to have PM2.5 dust particles exceeding 50 microns which were regarded as health hazardous.
The poor air quality was blamed on close weather, morning fog and stale air with wind velocity below 1.8 kph which collectively caused PM2.5 dust particles to accumulate and unable to spread out.
However, the Pollution Control Department has predicted that air quality in and around Bangkok might improve slightly due to anticipated breeze and better air circulation.
The department said that the Royal Rain-making an Agricultural Aviation Department would conduct cloud-seeding operation on daily basis from now on to ease the air pollution problem. An operation was launched yesterday afternoon, but it didn’t produce any rain as expected.
All trucks with six wheels and more have been banned from entering Bangkok from 5 am to 10 am and from 3 pm to10 pm as metropolitan and traffic police have started tightening up the movements of trucks blamed for belching black smoke and spreading dust particles in the air.
Ban on trash burning in the open has been strictly enforced in Bangkok’s peripherals, including Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani and Samut Sakhon provinces.
