Bangkok officials also announced free public transport for a week in a bid to reduce traffic in a city notorious for noxious exhaust fumes.
“It’s hard to breathe... I really feel the burn in my throat,“ Benjawan Suknae, 61, a drinks seller, told AFP.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said it had closed 352 schools across 31 districts due to air pollution.
Air pollution hits the Southeast Asian nation seasonally, as colder, stagnant winter air combines with smoke from crop stubble burning and car fumes.
The reading makes the Thai capital the world’s seventh-most polluted major city currently.
By Friday morning, 352 of the 437 schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) had shut their doors, affecting thousands of students.
In another bid to curb pollution, a government minister said Friday that public transport in Bangkok would be free for a week.
“We hope this policy will help reduce pollution.”
“I think there should be more awareness raised (by the BMA) and maybe a work-from-home policy would be best,“ said freelancer Wisut Kitnarong, 59.
Regional problem
Cambodia’s environment ministry confirmed on Friday that the air quality in Phnom Penh and three other provinces had reached a “red level”, meaning highly polluted.
Air pollution has closed schools across other parts of Asia recently -- specifically Pakistan and India
Pakistan’s most populated province of Punjab in November closed schools in smog-hit major cities for two weeks, with thousands hospitalised as air pollutants hit 30 times the level deemed acceptable by the WHO.
Climate change can worsen the problem of air pollution which is considered a “secondary impact of climate-induced hazards”, according to the report published Friday.
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