whackyjacky

I walk a lot to keep the blood pressure down. I only tend to notice it when traffic is stalled - not an infrequent occurrance. It's the deisel fumes that get to me. The air is bad, but not horrible. If the rains come a little early, you'll not be bothered.

Dr. HFH

I think that to some extent it depends on how you define smog. Visible? Sometimes, but far from always. OTOH, it nearly always smells like something's burning in much of Thailand; so, to the extent that smoke is considered smog/pollution, then yes.

fwh

I thought it was. I wasn't used to it.

dtsm

Many years back and I'm talking about 1980-90, Bkk was the pits, just like Beijing of today. There was no BTS, no auto emission controls, and one could walk from the Dusit Thani hotel, out the back via their parking lot to Robinson's and be forced to wear a face mask

But things have dramatically improved and not even close to HK or China. Go visit Donguan, southern China and it's a constant yellow/orange haze 24/7...

transpac

I've flown in, out and in to SBIA/BKK at night/pre-dawn over the last ten days and you can see many hundreds of small fires burning to the east and north of Bangkok. Driving back from the north of Thailand on Friday I saw many, many, many gigantic columns of smoke from agricultural burning, and quite a few near Bangkok on the eastern, outer ring road. There seemed to be a noticeable grey tinge to the air and I did notice the acrid smell/taste once I got out of my car in Prawet (near-ish to the airport).

Dr. HFH

Lots of burning up north here, too.

FoodieOnTour

The air in BKK these days is totally fine, clear sky and good air to breath. When the sky gets cloudy then mostly because of a shower that is to expect shortly after or in the somewhere area. It improves the air quality and lowers the temperatures. So I cannot see any harm in this also.

Back to your question for air quality in June... in June are usually no fires from the farmers and the rainy season has started, so expect lower temperatures, more then decent air quality and a quick shower once a while... mostly in the afternoon and over night.

forumpersona999

Particle pollution levels along many roads in the capital and noise pollution levels on all roads in the city are above safety standards, the Department of Environment said on Thursday.

LIH Prem

I was wondering the same thing and chuckling as I read the rest of that post.

-David

Annalisa12

I visited in August. I had no clue there was smog and never had a problem with the air I breathed!!

dsquared37

August is rainy season and the downpours can effectively clear up the air.

Rampo

I first visited Bangkok in the late '90s and I think there has been a highly noticeable improvement in the city's air quality over the years. On each of my first few visits I would always develop a raspy cough after just a couple of days in the city. That hasn't happened for years now. Still, when it's hot, humid and rush hour it can still be a bit unpleasant walking down a major avenue jammed with traffic, but that's big city life in the tropics.

transpac

Breathing isn't getting any easier

Lead pollution is now at safe levels, but new menaces to health continue to emerge

Published: 27 Jul 2013


http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/loca...ing-any-easier

Wilbur

A quick comparison of cities based on my most recent trip through a selection of Asian cities, worst at the top, best on the bottom.

Shanghai (humid, acidic, throat-burning, distressing even indoors)
Beijing (opaque, smoky, gloomy, humid, absence of sunlight)
Singapore (burning season, humid, cloudy, dark)
KL (humid, tailpipe exhaust, cloudy, smoky)
Manila (humid, tailpipe exhaust, cloudy)
Taipei (humid, cloudy, tailpipe exhaust)
Bangkok (humid, tailpipe exhaust)
Hong Kong (humid, cloudy)
Seoul (humid, cloudy)
Tokyo (humid, cloudy)

The pollution in China is just becoming unreal, and the burning in Malaysia and Indonesia is periodically pretty bad. Bangkok is far, far better for breathing than the top four cities on my list above.

transpac

The burning season affecting Thailand comes a month or two before that affecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, so suspect you were a bit lucky re: Bangkok and unlucky re: Singapore and KL. I was in Singapore at the peak of the recent smoky season, mid-June, and it was pretty bad; I've never seen anything like that here in Bangkok, even at the height of the burning season, or during street protests when they burn the tires. I know it does quite bad in Chiang Mai during their burning season, the same/worse as Singapore.