Air quality in Pong

Is Pong a highly polluted city to live in?

Pong is located in Phayao province in northern Thailand, one of the countries 76 provinces. It has shown some poor readings of air pollution in years past, and continues to do so as time goes on. In May of 2021, Pong presented with a US AQI reading of 57, placing it into the ‘moderate’ pollution ratings bracket. US AQI is a number calculated by some of the main pollutants found in the atmosphere, and will be discussed in further detail at the end of the article.

This reading demonstrates that at that particular time, Pong was not seeing any disastrous levels of air pollution, although of note is that a moderate reading of air pollution could still be harmful to more sensitive groups within the population, indicating that there would be traces of smoke and harmful particles lingering in the air. Protection against such contaminants becomes ever more important, particularly during the months that see higher levels of air pollution, and preventative measures such as the wearing of masks and avoiding outdoor movement become necessary.

In 2020, Pong came in with a yearly PM2.5 average reading of 35.6μg/m³, placing it within the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ ratings bracket. In order to be classified as such, a reading of anywhere between 35.5 to 55.4 μg/m³ needs to be attained. As mentioned previously, these sensitive groups are at ever more risk, and should heed the advice of the various preventative measures as prompted at the top of the page. People who may need to consider this advice would be groups such as young children and babies, as well as the elderly and pregnant women.

Anyone with a condition that puts them in poor health as well as having a predisposition towards chemical hypersensitivity would also fall under this bracket, and can benefit greatly from keeping up with hourly pollution readings via the air quality maps as present on the IQAir website, as well as the AirVisual app.

In closing, this reading of 35.6 μg/m³ that was recorded over 2020 placed Pong in 8^th place out of all cities ranked in Thailand, as well as in 281^st place out of all cities ranked worldwide.

Why is Pong such a polluted city?

Pong has high levels of pollution due to a multitude of sources, with ones such as the heavy use of vehicles being ever present. Smaller personal vehicles such as cars and motorbikes can contribute, particularly when they are older or more defunct models, prone to leaking far more noxious oil vapors or putting out greater amounts of harmful chemicals and fine particles. Heavy freight vehicles are also big polluters due to their great size and fuel that they run on (often diesel) putting out large amounts of associated pollution.

One of the more prominent causes of polluted air in Pong comes from fires started by farmers in both rural areas across northern Thailand, as well as from smoke clouds drifting across from neighboring countries such as Myanmar. These slash and burn farming methods have proven to be the biggest polluters to northern Thai cities, creating a highly problematic situation that has proven difficult to stop due to lack of proper crackdowns on offending parties.

What months have the worst levels of pollution in Pong?

Observing the air quality collected over the course of 2020 in Pong, the months of January to April had the highest levels of pollution present. They were, in order, 58.6 μg/m³, 61 μg/m³, 93.8 μg/m³ and 57.3 μg/m³. All of these were within the unhealthy ratings bracket, and March came in as the most polluted month with its sizeable reading of 93.8 μg/m³.

When is the air safer to breath in Pong?

After the pollution levels started to drop down following the first four months of the year, it can be seen that June through to September had some very good readings of PM2.5 present. They came in at 7.7 μg/m³, 8.2 μg/m³, 6.9 μg/m³ and 10.4 μg/m³, making three of them fall within the world health organization's (WHO's) target goal of 10 μg/m³ or less for the best quality of air, whilst September came in with a ‘good’ rating of air quality. August was the cleanest month of the year with its reading of 6.9 μg/m³.

What are some of the types of pollution found in Pong?

With much of its pollution stemming from various combustion sources, as well as areas that can leak large amounts of both fine and coarse particulate matter, Pong would have a number of main pollutants that would be found in relatively large quantities throughout the city and in particular near areas of high pollution, such as busy roads, industrial zones and near open burn sites (with fluctuating levels of these pollutants being found in different months of the year).

Many of the main ones go into making up the overall level of US AQI, which as mentioned is a composite number formed by calculating the main pollutants into a single figure. These are ones such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and both PM2.5 and PM10. Both sulfur and nitrogen dioxide are released in large quantities by vehicles, with NO₂ being the main offender when it comes to vehicle emissions, typically being found in large volumes over areas that see a high volume of traffic. This correlates strongly enough that levels of NO₂ found in the air can usually indicate how much pollution is being caused by traffic and vehicles alone.

Ozone is formed from chemical reactions taking place when the various oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and other gases or chemical pollutants are exposed to solar radiation. This is more prominent during months that have higher concentrations of sunlight, and as such, large accumulations of smog (as ozone is better known as when it gathers in its large, visible ground level clouds) can build up during these times.

Ozone is a vital part of the upper atmosphere, with many people being aware of the ozone layer and its job as a protective barrier. However, once on ground level, it can be a highly dangerous pollutant, causing symptoms of breathlessness, nausea, aggravation of asthma and other respiratory conditions, as well as causing swelling or inflammation of the lung tissue and respiratory tract.

Other pollutants include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and black carbon, both of which can find their origin from the combustion of both organic matter such as firewood, as well as fossil fuels used in factories and cars. Black carbon has carcinogenic properties, as well as causing warming affects on the surrounding climate, and as such presents a danger to both the environment as well as human health (with its incredibly small size putting it into the PM2.5 collective and enabling it to penetrate deep into the lung tissue and even enter the bloodstream). Some examples of the aforementioned VOCs include chemicals such as styrene, benzene and formaldehyde.