(CNN) — Parts of Asia are chocking under a thick layer of smog, leading at least one country to experiment in extreme forms of weather modification in an attempt to clear the toxic brown skies. Thailand, South Korea, China, India and Hong Kong are all facing unhealthy and even hazardous levels of pollution as weather patterns, coal heating and emissions contribute to the annual crisis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nine out of every 10 people on the planet breathe air containing a high level of pollutants, with the worst affected regions being Africa and Asia. Thailand Reuters Water cannons were being used on January 14, 2019 to clean the air and streets in Bangkok. Authorities in the Thai capital Bangkok are expected to deploy planes with special rainmaking capabilities – a technique known as cloud seeding – on Tuesday, with the aim of easing pollution in some parts of the city, according to the Bangkok Post. The concept involves injecting clouds with small amounts of inert chemicals, such as silver iodide, in order to increase rainfall. In recent years, it has been used by nations that suffer from severe seasonal pollution levels, including China. Several areas of Bangkok, a sprawling and heavily congested city of 8 million, are seeing high levels of PM2.5 pollution particles – microscopic particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter which are considered particularly harmful because they are small enough to lodge deep into the lungs and pass into other organs. In recent days, the levels have been hovering around 150-200 microgrammes per cubic meter, which is considered unhealthy on the Air Quality Index (AQI), according to CNN meteorologists. The World Health Organization considers AQI levels under 25 to be acceptable for humans to breathe regularly. Firefighters Monday blasted water from high-pressure cannons around Bangkok’s City Hall and other areas, as part of short term efforts to ease the hazardous smog, the Post reported. There is debate as to whether water is effective in washing away the finer and more dangerous PM2.5 particles. South Korea For five consecutive days, high levels of fine dust have blanketed parts of South Korea, according to local media. Over the past 48 hours, the cloud of fine dust has reached very unhealthy levels of between AQI 150-225, CNN meteorologists said. Local governments in ten cities have enacted emergency measures, such as limited vehicles on the road and reducing emissions output at factories, while people in Seoul covered their faces with masks and avoided going outside unless necessary. “The air is so murky and my throat hurts that I even feel depressed,” one South Korean citizen told the Yonhap News agency. Experts have pointed to the usual suspects causing what has become an annual crisis, including factories, car exhausts, coal heating and a stagnant air mass. Pollution from factories and emissions being blown across the Yellow Sea in China have also exacerbated the problem. China STR/AFP/Getty Images This aerial view shows the tops of highrise buildings poking out from heavy fog in Yangzhou, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on January 14, 2019. Cities across industrial areas in northeast China were put on “orange alert” over the weekend for heavy smog by the country’s central meteorological administration, the South China Morning Post reports. Visibility was reportedly down to 200 meters in some areas and even down to 50 meters in the worst affected regions. The smog is affecting Tianjin (about 80 miles from Beijing) and cities across Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei provinces. Shanghai posted an unhealthy AQI reading of 183 on Tuesday. Hong Kong also saw unhealthy levels of pollution over the weekend. In recent years, China has pushed efforts to curb its annual smog, which affects large swathes of the country during winter. In late 2017, China announced a major curtailing of small-scale coal burning – one of the biggest sources of pollution in winter – by shifting around 3 million households in northern China to natural gas. Coal is by far the main source of heating in the country, providing 83% of heat in 2016 according to Greenpeace, so by cutting this off, many households were without alternative sources of fuel. Yet the need to cut indoor coal emissions is extremely important, with the World Health Organization estimating that millions of premature deaths each year are caused by indoor air pollution created by the burning of solid fuels such as coal. It’s not just coal that could be causing the problem, however. A joint study by US and Chinese scientists found that formaldehyde – which comes from gas stove and kerosene heater emissions, and cigarette smoke, among other sources – could be playing an outsized role in contributing to China’s pollution problem. India LAURENE BECQUART/AFP/Getty Images Indian youths play football amid air pollution smog at Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on January 12, 2019. Pollution in India is believed to be responsible for up to a million deaths a year and the air in Delhi is ranked among the the worst in the world. On Tuesday, parts of the city reached hazardous levels exceeding AQI 300. It’s a problem that has plagued the Indian capital for years. Following the Diwali Hindu festival of lights in November, the US Embassy in Delhi reported pollution levels of 999 – or beyond the index reading of a standard AQI chart, which tops out at a “hazardous” level of 500. The pollution particularly affects those who work outside. “I have trouble breathing. By the time I return home, I have chest pain, I’m coughing,” Rana, who has been an auto rickshaw driver for 24 years, told CNN in November of his experience driving during the winter smog. Last week, the Indian government launched a five-year plan called the National Clean Air Program, which aims to reduce levels of air pollution by 30% from 2017 levels by 2024. CNN’s James Griffiths and Manveena Suri contributed.<doc-sep>BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai capital fired water cannon into the hot tropical air and hosed down streets on Monday as authorities handed out masks in a bid to combat air pollution in one of the world’s most visited cities which has been blanketed by smog since Saturday. The Agriculture Ministry was also preparing to seed clouds to try to clear the air. The level of hazardous dust particles known as PM 2.5 has exceeded the safe level in 30 of 50 Bangkok’s districts for days, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang told reporters. PM 2.5 is a mixture of liquid droplets and solid particles that can include dust, soot and smoke. It is one of the main pollutants included in measuring the Air Quality Index (AQI). Monday morning’s AQI in Bangkok was 180, according to the popular website airvisual.com, which measures levels in cities worldwide. The temperature was a sizzling 31 degrees Celsius. Any level above 150 is considered unhealthy and Bangkok ranked in the top 10 of polluted cities worldwide on Monday. At the top was Tel Aviv in Israel, at 454 on the index. Pollution in Bangkok has reached unhealthy levels before, usually during the dry season between January and March, but it doesn’t normally hang around too long. Slideshow ( 9 images ) Thai authorities vowed to keep fighting. “The city will hand out N95 masks that can protect people against PM 2.5 dust... We will distribute the first 10,000 masks to people in various spots around the city,” Aswin said earlier in the day. Many shops have ran out of masks because of high demand. “We have been sold out since Saturday,” Supannee Boriwongse, 37, a drug store manager in Bangkok’s Silom district, told Reuters. “We have ordered more but were told that there is a shortage.” The Department of Pollution Control says diesel fumes from cars contribute 50-60 percent of the pollution while burning rubbish and crops attributed about 35 percent. The government has banned large trucks from entering downtown Bangkok during the rush hours, while police have vowed to enforce the law on emission controls.<doc-sep>
Bangkok (AFP) - Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital in recent weeks. The weather modification technique involves dispersing chemicals into the air to aid cloud condensation, which should in theory result in rain. "The Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation... expects the rainmaking to be done tomorrow (Tuesday) but it depends on wind and humidity levels," Pralong Dumrongthai, director-general of Thailand's Pollution Control Department, told reporters. As Thais woke up Monday morning to another day of murky air blanketing its bustling construction-filled capital, environment group Greenpeace said Bangkok was currently the 10th most polluted in the world, rivalling some cities in China. Reasons for the persistent smog include combustion exhaust from Bangkok's traffic-strewn roads, the burning of fields from farmers outside the city, and pollutants from factories. Public discontent has surfaced on Thai social media and television, with pollution-related hashtags trending and TV hosts advising viewers on the types of face masks they should wear. Air Visual, an independent online air quality index (AQI) monitor, pegged Bangkok at "unhealthy" levels measuring 156 AQI on Monday -- though numbers have often crept higher in the last two months. But the Pollution Department played down the dangers of the persistent haze, which the government judges using a different set of measurements to see the concentration of harmful microscopic particles known as PM2.5. He said Bangkok had recent peak PM2.5 levels of 102 micrograms per cubic metre and on Monday was sitting under 90. "Our PM figure is high but it is not a crisis yet," he said. "We are not in the range of 120-150 where all people have to wear masks all the time when they are out." But Greenpeace's Thailand director Tara Buakamsri said immediate action should be taken by the authorities, like reducing the number of cars and closing schools in high-risk areas. "The pollution issues are more and more frequent in Bangkok. We need smarter air quality management." In recent weeks, municipal workers have sprayed water along the roads and into the air in Bangkok to help clear the smog, while authorities have urged people to stay indoors.