Bangkok Is Running Out of Air Purifiers & Masks As Toxic Smog Worsens

Remember the N95 Mask?

They were the talk of the town and on (literally) everyone’s lips/mouth during the SARS crisis in Singapore circa 2002-2003.

That was then and Singaporeans now rarely need to have well-kept stock of surgical masks at home, as we generally have good air-quality free from polluting particles and/or airborne pathogens.

Oh, well, maybe not.

Thanks but no thanks, really.

Alas, the same cannot be said of Thailand, the land of smiles.

Out Of Stock

According to this 6 Feb ST article, Thailand has been gripped by a chronic shortage of filters and masks as Bangkok, the Thai capital, is shrouded by a blanket of lifeless toxic smog as a result of seasonal air pollution.

According to the report, “Out of stock” is the common refrain every time Bangkok fruit seller, Veerachai Roopsuwanakul, tries to buy an air purifier.

Veerachai, who now wears a face mask to filter out dust said: “We can’t find a purifier in shops or online” and added: “We never imagined the air could get so bad”.

Local retailers like Berli Jucker and Home Product Centre have been unable to keep up with demand and Berli’s Chief Executive Officer, Aswin Techajareonvikul, said the firm was looking for new suppliers of pollution masks.

With that, this appears to be a growing opportunity and “smoke” signal for “purifier makers such as Sharp or mask manufacturer 3M in the city of roughly 10 million people” to step up production to cope with the increased demand.

A drastic shift in reportage

The shortage of purifiers and masks appears to be attributed to a growing haze awareness “spread[ing] rapidly among Bangkok’s residents this year.”

According to the article:

“While the pollution problem isn’t as bad as in places like New Delhi, haze awareness spread rapidly among Bangkok’s residents this year.

More than 2 million people are tracking Bangkok on the IQAir AirVisual app, compared with about 80,000 for the Indian capital.

“The surge of interest from Thailand started around Jan 21,” said Kelsey Duska, the startup’s marketing manager. “Since then, Thailand has been the country generating the most interest in terms of app usage and sales of air quality monitors.””

This is interesting as ST ran another Thailand-smog related article on 14 Jan 2019, which said among many other things, this:

“Nevertheless, people wearing face masks remained a rare sight around the capital. Many children and seniors could be seen going about their outdoor activities as usual.

“Air pollution is really a silent killer and many Thais underestimate the danger to their health, so not many people protect themselves by wearing a face mask or installing air purifiers at home,” Dr Witsanu said.”

From an unconcerned, under-informed and listless  general public to one that is experiencing “rapid” spread of awareness  (resulting in mask/purifier shortage) within a period of 3 weeks, is truly fascinating to say the least.

A quick search on the net did not yet anything significant that happened on the 21 Jan which might have potentially resulted in this uptick in awareness.

All I could find was a 18 Jan Press Release by Thailand’s Pollution Control Department titled “Thailand State of Pollution 2018.”

That said, it might be that I was lost in translation among reports in Thai.

That said, let’s hope we can see the Thais’ smiles, sans mask-sans pollution, again, for that is a language that knows no translative barrier.

Or maybe they need an NTUC FairPrice. Anyone remembers how they came in back in the days when the haze was crazy to ensure that the supply for masks was always adequate?