“Air pollution in Phuket remains at a safe level,” REO 15 Director Akkarawat Hirunphun told The Phuket News today (Oct 26).
“Don’t worry about it,” he added.
An officer at the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) concurred.
“The haze covering Phuket is an effect from heavy rain over the past week. It is nothing to worry about,” the officer, who asked not to be named, explained.
The officer added that so far no heavy smog alerts arising from Indonesian forest fires had been issued.
“No countries around Thailand are currently engaging in mass burn-offs of forests, so people can stay outdoors and do outdoor activities just as they usually would,” the officer assured.
However, according to Thai Pollution Control Department (PCD), PM10 readings, which measure the volume of particles in the air, have doubled twice over the past two days. (See PCD website here.)
To this, Mr Akkarawat assured the extra particles in the air were nothing but water vapour.
“It’s just evaporation from the ground because of the heavy rain over the past week,” he said.