Bangkok and Chiang Mai air quality sees improvement over last week
With the arrival of winter, Bangkok's air quality has improved to "moderate" in the latest readings.
The Air Visual application reported on Sunday that Bangkok’s air pollution level, according to the US Air Quality Index (AQI) standard, stood at 66, with the level of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter (PM2.5) at 19.3 per cubic metre (µg/m3).
Bangkok and Chiang Mai (69 US AQI/20.7µg/m3) rank 37th and 36th respectively on the list of cities with the worst air quality in the world.
AQI is a standard that indicates the quality of air and level of pollution. Level 0-50 is good air quality, 51-100 is moderate quality, 101-105 starts affecting sensitive groups, 151-200 is slightly harmful to health, 201-300 is highly harmful and 301-500 is extremely dangerous.
The pollution level is forecast to stay between 60-90 US AQI through this week.
Meanwhile, the Pollution Control Department reported that the air quality in Bangkok and its perimeter is currently fluctuating between very good to moderate with PM2.5 at around 15-41µg/m3 detected by every air quality station, decreasing from last week by 20 units. Thailand's safety limit for PM2.5 is 50µg/m3, while the safety limit for AQI is 100.
As of 9am on Sunday, the five cities with the worst air quality were: 1. Kabul, Afghanistan 417; 2. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 222; 3. Lahore, Pakistan 220; 4. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 201; 5. Dhaka, Bangladesh 188.
The cities with the best air quality were: 1. Tashkent, Uzbekistan 2; 2. Skopje, North Macedonia 5; 3. Oslo, Norway 6; 4. Hangzhou, China 8; 5. London, United Kingdom 10.