Current Air Quality

Cambodia, and especially its capital Phnom Penh, is just subjected to Air Pollution just like any other countries in Asia.

Cambodia ranks 162nd (out of 178 countries) at the Environmental Performance Index for Air Quality. This air pollution problem, just like other countries is South Asia, is becoming even more important for World Heritage Sites like the Angkor Archeological Park (Siem Reap) - due to the hundreds of tuk-tuks and buses carrying the tourist (check this article). You can read useful advices from the US Embassy on Phnom Penh "Dirty Air", or this interesting blog post about "Air pollution is hardly Cambodia’s highest priority".

Air Quality Data availability

Like most of the countries in Asia, there is no reason why there should not be real-time Air Quality monitoring in Cambodia, at least for Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Unfortunately, there is not much information about real-time Air Quality data from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). And projects like the ASEAN-German Clean Air for Smaller Cities looked promising, but did not provide any tangible monitoring result.

The best solution for providing real-time Air Quality information in Cambodia is for the MOE to start providing official hourly AQI readings. But this can, sometimes, take more time than expected.

Light but visible Air Pollution on Phnom Penh Skyline (attribution).
(Check this articlefor an explanatiom about visual air quality)

Street 96

Street 20

Street 96

Street 96

Krous

Tonle Bassac

Building A, St 253, Phnom Penh, Institute of Technology of Cambodia

Street 360

About the Air Quality Levels

AQI	Air Pollution Level	Health Implications	Cautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 - 50	Good	Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk	None
51 -100	Moderate	Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300	Very Unhealthy	Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+	Hazardous	Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects	Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion

To know more about Air Quality and Pollution, check the wikipedia Air Quality topic or the airnow guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

For very useful health advices of Beijing Doctor Richard Saint Cyr MD, check www.myhealthbeijing.com blog.