Haze and blazes hit North
published : 7 Mar 2023 at 14:15
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Post Reporters
Haze pollution is exceeding safe levels in 36 provinces, particularly in the North, while Bangkok and surrounding provinces will remain blanketed in smog for two more days.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on Monday that dust particles (PM2.5) have been at critical levels in the North and the Northeast for the past week, as a result of slash-and-burn activities in forests and farms with more than 2,500 hotspots found on both sides of the border.
Officials are struggling to control the fires, the Ministry said, adding that the Asean Secretariat had alerted the bloc's members of the hotspots in their countries, to help deal with the problem.
Satellite images showed 6,701 hotspots in Myanmar, 2,583 in Thailand, 2,125 in Cambodia, 1,434 in Laos, 147 in Vietnam, and two in Malaysia on Saturday.
The Department of Natural Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation on Monday announced the closure of 38 national parks to prevent fires.
Checkpoints inspected 109,696 vehicles in Bangkok in the six months between October last year and Feb 28.
Of them, a total of 23,707 were releasing exhaust fumes that breached regulations on toxicity.
PM2.5 pollution exceeded safe levels in 36 provinces on Monday, with levels up to 132μg/m³ in most areas in the North.
Vocabulary
- bloc: a group of people or a group of countries with the same aim - สมาชิกพรรคการเมือง
- checkpoint: a place where people are stopped and questioned and vehicles are examined, especially at a border between two countries - ด่านตรวจ
- closure (noun): the shutting down of a school, factory or other business or service - การปิด
- critical (adj): (of a bad situation) very serious or dangerous - รุนแรง วิกฤต
- dust: very small pieces of dirt that cover surfaces inside buildings like a powder - ฝุ่น
- exhaust fumes: the waste gas from an engine, especially a car's, or the pipe the gas flows through - ควันท่อไอเสีย
- hotspot: a place where there is a lot of activity, or a higher temperature than normal -
- particle: an extremely small piece or amount of something - ฝุ่นละอองขนาดเล็ก
- PM2.5 (n): atmospheric particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair. It can lodge in the lungs and enter blood vessels, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular disease -
- prevent (verb): to stop somebody from doing something; to stop something from happening - ขัดขวาง, ป้องกัน, กัน, กีดขวาง
- satellite: an electronic device that is sent into space and moves around the earth or another planet. It is used for communicating by radio, television, etc. and for providing information - ดาวเทียม
- secretariat: a group of senior people within a government or organisation - สำนักเลขาธิการ
- slash-and-burn: involving the cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields - ไร่เลื่อนลอย
- struggle (verb): to try hard to do something that you find very difficult - พยายาม; ต่อสู้
- toxicity (noun): being poisonous and harmful to people, animals or the environment; the level or degree to which something is poisonous - เป็นพิษ
- μg/m³: microgrammes per cubic metre, a measure used for air pollution -
