Nowadays, many countries, including Thailand,
face air pollution, a big problem. This pollution mostly comes from
transportation, industries and also our house. We all know it can harm us; it causes many
serious health problems that can make us die, but many people ignore it.
According to NPR article “WHO: Pollution Kills 7 Million
People Every Year”, air pollution kills about 7 million people each year
because it can cause irritation in lung, chronic problem, and cancer. Over a
half of these people died from indoor air pollution, and women and children
tend to have higher risk than men because they spend more time at home.
I know that air pollution is very dangerous, but
I have never known that each year many people died because of it. When I was
young, I watched one program about health on television and I can’t forget it.
It’s a story of one woman. She spent her life in a healthy way, eating healthy
foods and having a lot of exercises. She walked to her office instead of driving
almost every day for many years. But one day, she felt sick, a doctor said she
had a cancer because of air pollution that she took in during her traveling to
office. After watching this, I am more careful about air pollution when I go
out. I will use my handkerchief as face mask if I am in the place that has air
pollution because I really hate that smell; moreover, I want to protect myself.
I am surprised when I read “more than half of the fatalities due
to fumes from indoor stoves”. I have
never thought indoor air pollution before, but I think it’s true. For example,
my grandmother cooks by using a charcoal stove, which we have to light it with
small branch, paper, and sometimes some plastic. I think it looks like burning
trash that cause hazardous air pollution because there are some dangerous
substances in plastic. This can cause serious health problem. I think many
people in Thailand, especially older people, still use charcoals stoves, so
they take in high level of air pollution.
Air pollution is an important problem which we
have to solve it together. I agree with Frank Kelly, director of the
environmental research group at King's College London, that wearing face masks
is not a good way to solve this problem.
I think it’s like we delude ourselves, don’t try to change anything, and
there is still the problem. As Kelly said “The real problem is that wearing
masks sends out the message we can live with polluted air, we need to change
our way of life entirely to reduce pollution”
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Reference
Since I was born I have lived in Bangkok, the city which is full of haze. I always feel tired when I have to walk along the street in Bangkok. Recently, my mom has a sore throat and dry cough, so she try to find time for family's vacation in rural area.
ReplyDeleteIt might sound odd, or just wrong, but I'm sure that Bangkok's air is less polluted now than when I first visited about 25 years ago. Then it really was bad. Coming from Sydney, I thought it was disgusting, but I was in for a big surprise.
DeleteAfter a short stop in Bangkok, I continued on to Taiwan, where I was going to live and study for a year, and Taipei made the air in Bangkok look clean and healthy. Almost every day, when I looked down a road, it quickly disappeared into a murky, black haze, and I did suffer there from a sore throat and also eyes.
I haven't been back for many years now, but I believe Taipei is not much improved in air pollution. And I suspect for similar reasons that seem to me to have greatly helped Bangkok - increasing use of modern mass transit systems, and stronger regulation of filthy cars.
I hope the improvement continues.