Around 1,700 people have gone to court in the city of Chiang Mai over the ongoing severe air pollution in northern Thailand. In their class action lawsuit, they accuse Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and two state agencies of not doing enough to stop the slash-and-burn activities responsible for the toxic smog, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Tuesday. The plaintiffs include activists, academics and many concerned citizens concerned about their health.
In the statistics of the cities with the worst air pollution in the world (IQAir), Chiang Mai has recently been at the top several times. On Tuesday, the temple city, which is also popular with tourists, ranked third behind Beijing and Delhi.
The reason for the extreme smog that has lasted for weeks is slash and burn in Thailand, but above all in neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Especially at the end of the dry season, farmers burn their fields to free them from undergrowth and weeds. Sugar cane fields, on the other hand, are burned so that the harvest workers can better see where to cut the canes.
Therefore, particularly between January and April, there are often high levels of particulate matter. Authorities in Thailand banned burning in 2019 to keep dangerous fine smoke particles under control, but the law is often circumvented. The plaintiffs accuse the government and the national environmental agency of not having done enough to enforce the requirements.
Rangsarit Kanchanawanit, from Chiang Mai University’s medical school, said pollution increases the risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and shortens life expectancy by four to five years. “We want the government to change policy, show strong political will and not just be considerate of capitalist groups,” he said. “That could save millions of people from disease.”
