News

The Nation 23 January 2018 | Pratch Rujivanarom

Hydroponic vegetables have been found to be more contaminated with chemicals than vegetables grown with soil, the Thailand Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN) revealed on Monday.

After announcing the shock result of its testing on 30 hydroponic vegetable samples from across the country, Thai-PAN – along with the BioThai Foundation – urged producers and distributors of hydroponic vegetables and concerned agencies to come up with measures to reduce the use of chemicals in their cultivation, establish a standard to limit contamination, and ensure food safety for consumers.

Frontier 22 January 2018 | SU MYAT MON

A Thai company planning to build a $2.8 billion power plant says its advanced technology will prevent damage to the environment, but nearby residents are sceptical.

DIVISIONS ARE hardening in Kayin State over a planned coal-fired power plant that the government says is needed to support development but is opposed by some community groups due to worries about its possible impact on the environment.

Eleven 20 January 2018 | Kaung Khant Lin (Monywa)

A gold mining company near Kyauk Pahto village in Kawlin Township, Kathar District in Sagaing Region, on January 17 killed many fish, according to local residents.

Farmers are also worried about their plantations as their plantations are situated close to the polluted river.

Bangkok Post 18 January 2018 | Apinya Wipatayotin

Ozone and dust particles could be the main factors worsening air pollution in Bangkok over the next decade if the government fails to raise minimum standards for vehicle fuel emissions, an air quality expert says.

Standards need to be raised from the current minimum Euro 4 to Euro 5 and Euro 6, according to Supat Wangwongwattana, an air quality expert from Thammasat University's Faculty of Public Health.

The Nation 18 January 2018 | PRATCH RUJIVANAROM

AUTHORITIES HAVE been urged to take the threat of air pollution seriously after Greenpeace revealed average levels of particulate matter with diameter of 2.5 microns or smaller (PM2.5) was higher at all air-quality monitoring stations than World Health Organisation (WHO) standards for three years in a row.

Bangkok Post 17 January 2018 

Artist Rueangsak Anuwatwimon has applied his talent to awakening people to an invisible threat they unwittingly breathe in - by incorporating ultra fine dust collected from polluted areas across Thailand in his human sculptures.

His work carries a warning of the dangerous levels of invisible pollutants people inhale every day..

The Nation 17 January 2018 | PRATCH RUJIVANAROM

THERE ARE still no plans to cancel the Krabi and Thepa coal-fired power plant projects, the Electricity Generating Authority (Egat) has stated, while it was confirmed that there would also be new coal or gas-powered plants in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) special economic zone.

Vietnam Net 17 January 2018

With Vietnam planning to signigicantly increase its number of coal plants over the next decade, potentially posing great risks to the environment, international experts have advised the country to work on a cleaner path forward.

Bangkok Post 13 January 2018 | Apinya Wipatayotin

Air quality at Na Pra Lan in Saraburi, the country's largest rock quarrying and limestone mining area, is the worst in the country, moving ahead of the northern provinces and their annual haze, according to the Pollution Control Department's (PCD) recently released 2017 report.

The PCD monitoring station showed the amount of dust particles found in Na Pra Lan in Saraburi's Chalerm Prakiat district was 257 microgrammes per cubic metre, which beat the 237 recorded in the northern provinces.

The Asahi Shimbun 13 January 2018 | EDITORIAL

Japan is facing mounting international criticism over its coal-fired thermal power generation goals while the rest of the world is striving to reduce its carbon footprint.

Japanese utilities have a raft of plans to build new coal-fired power plants despite the fact that coal generates far larger amounts of carbon dioxide when burned than other fuels for power generation