Bangkok: Bangkok announces request for cooperation from government and private sectors to WFH on 20-21 Jan 68. It is expected that the dust value next week will be orange with a low ventilation rate. School administrators can order opening and closing according to the criteria and discretion.
According to Thai News Agency, Mr. Ekwaranyu Amrapal, spokesman for Bangkok, revealed the adjustment of the WORK FROM HOME (WFH) measures according to the PM 2.5 dust situation in Bangkok that from the prediction of factors related to the PM 2.5 dust value on Monday and Tuesday, January 20-21, 2025, it was found that 1. There are 35 districts or more where the dust value is orange. 2. The ventilation rate is poor, which is between 875-2,250 square meters per second (m2/s). 3. The burning points in the past 5 days (January 11-15, 2025) exceeded 80 points per day.
Therefore, WFH is announced on 20-21 Jan 2025, which requires close monitoring of the situation. If PM 2.5 dust is found to continue to increase, WFH will be announced until 24 Jan 2025. WFH network partners have been informed in advance so that they can plan their work in advance and reduce the impact on participating agencies.
Currently, there are various sectors joining the BMA as a WFH network of approximately 100,000 people. Therefore, we invite anyone who wishes to join the project to register with the BMA via the link https://bit.ly/3Nn25nR?r=qr. For more information, please contact the Air Quality and Noise Management Division, Environment Department, Bangkok, Tel. 0 2203 2951
Administrators must exercise their discretion to close schools based on the dust situation and specified criteria. For school closures in Bangkok, administrators must consider the following:
1. PM 2.5 values between 37.6-75 µg/m3 (orange air quality flag level): The director of the educational institution must exercise his discretion to close schools for no more than 3 days at a time. The district director must exercise his discretion to close schools for no more than 7 days at a time.
2. PM 2.5 values of more than 75 µg/m3 (red air quality flag level) for 3 consecutive days. The director of the Office of Education must exercise his discretion to close schools for no more than 15 days at a time. When PM 2.5 dust values are higher than 2-5 districts. The Bangkok governor must exercise his discretion to close schools for no time limit. When PM 2.5 dust values are higher than 5 districts.
If there is a closure of classes, the school must arrange for compensatory classes later or consider arranging alternative classes, such as online classes. If classes are not closed, the school must have a Safe Zone for vulnerable students and everyone in the school and strictly implement dust prevention measures.
For civil servants, the Office of the Bangkok Civil Service Commission (OCSC) has adjusted the guidelines for civil servants to support the new way of life and work of Bangkok to be appropriate for the severity of PM 2.5 dust. There are formats of work, such as working on-site by staggering working hours, working on-site by counting working hours, working off-site for academic work that does not require much contact with service recipients or outsiders, and can submit work via online systems, etc.
The Bangkok Environment Department (BEM) reported that there are currently 31,041 6-wheel vehicles on the green list out of the target of 10,000 vehicles (310%). There are also general vehicles participating in the project to reduce dust or the campaign to encourage people to change car filters, 229,711 vehicles out of the target of 500,000 vehicles, helping to reduce PM 2.5 from the traffic sector by 12% and dust from all sources by 8%. If the target of 500,000 vehicles is reached, PM 2.5 can be reduced by 25%.
In addition, from the test using the CCTV camera system to detect 6-wheeled vehicles or more entering the Ratchadaphisek Ring Road or the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) dust control area between January 11-16, 2025, it was found that there were 9,881 6-wheeled vehicles entering the area, an average of 1,647 vehicles per day, of which 1,630 were green-listed vehicles.