Air quality in Sakon Nakhon

What is the air quality index of Sakon Nakhon?

Sakon Nakhon is a city in Thailand within the Isan district and is the capital city of the province of the same name. It is 651 kilometres northeast of Bangkok. It is not a huge city with a population of 76,000. At the end of 2020, the air quality index recorded a figure of 72 UA AQI and a concentration of PM2.5 as 22.1 µg/m³. This figure is classed as “Moderate” according to the recommended levels by the World Health Organisation (WHO). These statistics are produced from satellite images as there are currently no ground-level monitoring stations. With figures in this region, the advice is to close doors and windows to prevent the dirty air getting inside the home and sensitive groups of people should avoid going outside if it can be prevented.

Why Sakon Nakhon is polluted?

Without doubt, the largest source of air pollution in and around Sakon Nakhon city is from burning organic agricultural waste.

The Agricultural Office in Sakon Nakhon Province is continuing the campaign to reduce burning. They hope to raise the awareness of farmers to realise the problem of burning farmland. They are being encouraged to prevent, suppress, deter and report incidents of burning in agricultural areas and to accelerate the expansion of knowledge on the use of agricultural technology to reduce burning.

The air pollution situation from the dust content continuously exceeds the standard in many areas across the country. Sakon Nakhon Province has campaigned to reduce burning continuously by encouraging farmers to use the method of tilling rice stubble and sowing green manure instead of burning. To build awareness and to publish and prevent and cultivate a consciousness not to burn plant residues or weeds. And to report incidents of burning in agricultural areas, including enhancing farmers' knowledge and consciousness to be aware of the problem of burning in agricultural areas. Farmers can produce compost from rice straw which can be used to produce renewable energy from agricultural waste materials. Produce straw briquettes to increase feed efficiency and using agricultural technology to reduce the need for burning of agricultural areas. Along with the introduction of the correct forest fire control.

Is air pollution in Sakon Nakhon getting worse?

Not only is straw burnt but also garbage, leaves, weeds and burning for agricultural land preparation. From the report of the accumulated heat points from the MODIS satellite between 1st January and 25th February, 2020 found that there are 465 cumulative heat points, with five districts with the most burning data. Wanon Niwat District 99 points, Kusuman District 54 points, Sawang Daen Din District 53 points, Charoen Sin District 35 points and Akat Amnuen District 34 points.

What can be done to improve the air quality in Sakon Nakhon?

The local authorities in Sakon Nakhon continue to inspect factories nationwide. It is their intention to accelerate the implementation of the standard of ventilation and filtration standards. They also are ready to push the mandatory standard for Euro 5 cars to solve the problem of toxic emissions from vehicles.

In total, 2,095 plants were inspected and it was found that no factories had dust values exceeding the standard 2.5 microns (PM2.5), but found higher, unacceptable levels in other plants, the Ministry of Industry ordered 35 plants to improve their standards according to Section 37 and ordered the cessation of operation at 3 other plants.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry accelerated the implementation of the standard of dust ventilation from the factory totalling not more than 240 milligrams per cubic meter (for fuel oil) and 320 milligrams per cubic meter of air (for coal fuel), which the Ministry has in charge of dust exiting from industrial plants at 3 levels as follows:

• A General factory is a factory that may cause pollution, especially dust There will be 4 treatment systems installed: 1) Wet Scrubber, using water or liquid to spray down from the top in the reverse direction of the airflow. 2) Dust collector with a cloth filter. 3) Cyclone dust collector 4) Electrostatic dust collector (Electrostatic Precipitator: ESP).
• A group of factories that cause environmental impacts. In addition to having installed various treatment systems and there is also a specific controller registered with the Department of Industrial Works who must have qualifications and experience in controlling various treatment systems. At present, there are approximately 2,000 factories, which from the dust measurement results of the factories in this group found that the average total dust ventilation is approximately 50 mg per cubic meter of air.
• Factories that cause high pollution. It is a factory with 10 types of sources, such as power plants with a capacity of 29 MW or more. Factories with a boiler of 30 tons of steam per hour or more. Cement plants, lime, etc. according to the announcement of the Ministry of Industry subject to different types of factories Special equipment must be installed to automatically monitor the air quality from chimneys which must be installed to automatically measure the concentration of air pollution from the chimney at the air pollution source. (Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems: CEMS), with 24/7 monitoring.

What are the effects on health through breathing in Sakon Nakhon’s polluted air?

Even young, healthy people can suffer the immediate effects of air pollution. The severity depends on any pre-existing medical conditions, especially respiratory conditions, the concentration levels of the pollutants, the pollutants themselves and the length of time spent exposed to the conditions.

Levels of high air pollution can cause immediate problems such as aggravated cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. The heart and lungs become stressed as they need to work harder in order to attain the level of oxygen needed by the body. Cells in the respiratory can soon become irrevocably damaged.

Long-term exposure to air pollution can permanently damage the body through accelerated ageing of the lungs which leads to a loss of capacity and a decrease in their efficiency. Diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and possibly cancer develop far quicker. It can also shorten the lifespan.

Some groups of people are more susceptible to poor air quality than others. Pregnant women, children under the age of 14 years, senior citizens and those who work outside all have to take extra precautions to mitigate the possible damage.