Bangkok employees work from home

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Bangkok city employees have been told to work from home to avoid harmful air pollution, as a layer of noxious haze blanketed the Thai capital on Thursday.

“I would like to ask for cooperation from the BMA network of about 151 companies and organizations, both government offices and the private sector,” Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said in a statement late Wednesday, adding that more than 60,000 people were affected.

BMA is an abbreviation for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

Chadchart said at least 20 of Bangkok’s 50 districts were expected to have unhealthy levels of PM2.5 particles, and the problem would linger because of calm weather.

Air quality in Thailand regularly plummets in the early months of the year as smoke from farmers burning stubble in the fields adds to industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust fumes.

The air monitoring website IQAir ranked Bangkok among the 10 most polluted cities in the world on Thursday morning.