By Rebecca. L. Root

A small group of volunteers is challenging Thailand’s powerful industries with the country’s first citizen-drafted Clean Air Bill. Their seven-year battle against toxic air is now reaching a critical point in parliament.

At an International Women’s Day gathering on an unusually windy Saturday in March, protesters wear home-made paper lungs around their necks, delivering an unmistakable message to Thailand’s lawmakers: women, alongside others, are dying from the toxic air they breathe daily. It’s not fair and it certainly doesn’t have to be this way, says Weenarin Lulitanonda, a senior consultant at the World Bank, who calls Bangkok home. But getting that message to resonate with those in power and polluting industries themselves is an uphill battle.

It’s one Weenarin began fighting in 2018 when pollution was only a fringe conversation. The dozens of studies that have since been produced showing the state of Thailand’s poor air quality and the detrimental impacts on people’s health as well as the environment, were only murmurs. The issue was not yet a top priority for the government; clinics treating people for illnesses related to toxic fumes were yet to be established; and the public had not yet taken their widespread outrage online.

Weenarin was confused by the inaction on what she saw as a glaringly obvious health issue. She began to read all literature on the issue, learning that the country’s pollution levels, which today are known to regularly be double levels dubbed safe by the World Health Organization, peak between January and May as agricultural burning layers on top of industrial and traffic emissions. 

During this same period, Weenarin started suffering from persistent headaches; something she attributed to running outside. A dream to participate in the 2018 Paris marathon was quickly dashed in favour of prioritising her health. “I don’t want to die because of this,” she told HaRDstories, explaining that she now no longer runs. 

Instead, all her spare time is dedicated to what she calls “the war for clean air”. This is why she stands outside the United Nations headquarters in Bangkok on a Saturday, brandishing a placard that calls out big polluters and politicians while rallying her fellow clean air warriors.

What began as one woman’s health concern has evolved into Thailand’s first coordinated challenge to air pollution – and to powerful industrial interests in a country where economic priorities often overshadow public health. Now, after years of grassroots organising, the group’s citizen-drafted legislation is closer than ever to a breakthrough that could save thousands of lives annually.
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“Like a lot of air quality organisations, [Thai CAN] operates with a lot of unpaid hours, fueled by its volunteers. They have been quite strategic in how they use their time, by focusing tightly on policy outcomes and driving those,” said Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Clean Air Program at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. “From what I’ve observed, they’ve also been relentless and creative, finding ways to get the message out in as many ways as possible.”

Continue reading at HaRDstories…