Bangkok air quality crisis: Over 350 schools shut as city ranks seventh most polluted

Air pollution in Thailand's Bangkok forced the closure of over 350 schools on Friday, the highest number since 2020, affecting thousands of students. The city was ranked the seventh-most polluted major city in the world by air quality monitor IQAir.

The level of PM2.5 pollutants, which are cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs, reached 108 micrograms per cubic metre on Friday, well above the World Health Organisation's recommended 24-hour average exposure of 15, according to an AFP news report.

Seasonal air pollution, caused by a combination of colder, stagnant winter air, smoke from crop stubble burning, and car fumes, has long been a problem in Thailand and many other countries in the region, reported AFP.
"Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has closed 352 schools across 31 districts due to air pollution," the authority said in a message shared on its official LINE group.

Interior minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered a ban on stubble burning, with those responsible risking legal prosecution. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, currently attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, also called for tougher measures to tackle pollution, including limiting construction in the capital and seeking cooperation from nearby countries.

Neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia's biggest cities also ranked in IQAir's top 10 most-polluted major cities globally on Friday, with Ho Chi Minh City reaching second and Phnom Penh fifth. However, Cambodia's environment ministry spokesman Khvay Atitya said that the air quality in the country was within safe levels, according to their own standards.

"Other countries have their own standards. Cambodia has our own standard to determine the air quality," he told reporters, adding that authorities had not issued any emergency measures.