Pollution Control Department announces strict inspection of industrial plants and vehicles throughout 2023 to mitigate PM 2.5 threat

      The worsening PM 2.5 situation usually occurs at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, owing to the weather during those times, when the high pressure air from China spreads to cover Thailand, causingPM 2.5 to accumulate. So the weather, in combination with air pollution, is an important factor that causes PM 2.5 to exceed the standard every year.

      To resolve such problems, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, through the Pollution Control Department, prepared a special plan to solve pollution problems in 2023, focusing on preventing and solving dust problems in three areas: urban, agricultural, and forest areas.

      In urban areas, there is a major problem of dust from traffic and industrial plants. Therefore, the zones where industrial plants are located arrange staff to inspect plants that tend to emit the highest pollution throughout the year.

      In particularly, plants with the greatest risk of dust emission from combustion processes and activities that generate dust emissions include plants using boilers, coal plants, steel mills, ready-mixed concrete plants, and asphalt plants, located in Bangkok, its vicinity, and other provinces, a total of 896 plants, including cement mixing businesses, metal smelting businesses, car paint shops, and incense production.

      As for traffic, both the public and private sectors are requested to cooperate by maintaining the engines in their vehicles.Projects such as the government automobile project to reduce pollution and the automobile clinic project to reduce PM2.5 cooperate with automobile manufacturers and distributors to offer a free engine checking service and discounts on engine oil, spare parts, labor costs, and low-sulfur oil that is sold during a PM 2.5 crisis. 

      Other measures include increasing the strictness of dark smoke measurements and expanding the dark smoke measurement area to control it from the source, such as truck companies, bus stations, and regular route and non-regular route bus garages, as well as BMTA bus garages.

      In addition, industrial plant operators and those who use various kinds of vehicles in their workplaces should speed up their checking and adjust their practices to avoid illegal actions that may affect their business.

Source: Pollution Control Department

Tel:+66 2298-2000