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Letters
Vol 1. No 2. November, 1997
Dealing with Dust
Question: What can I do to
protect myself from the terrible pollution in Bangkok?
Answer: First of all , I am limiting myself in
this answer to the three forms of pollution we are most
commonly exposed to in Bangkok: water, air and
noise-pollution. To protect yourself from water pollution
I would advise against swimming/bathing in anything but a
bathtub or a clean pool. While toxic pollutants, such as
heavy metals and certain industrial salts, may be present
in any body of water they are being dumped in, microbes
are more present in stagnant water, but definitely not
absent from rivers and streams. Furthermore it would be
most safe in this context to only drink and use bottled
water, even for cooking and making coffee, tea and soup.
To protect yourself from air pollution in Bangkok is
harder. Avoiding places where you are prone to inhale
fumes, gases and dust is your best protection, unless you
want to go around with a very advanced gas mask. Good
nose/mouth masks made of fabric may not protect against
fumes and gases, but do protect you against inhaling dust
particles, some of which, such as cement and abestos, can
cause severe respiratory illness in the future.
Unfortunately it cannot be predicted whether you are
prone to develop respiratory illness based upon prolonged
exposure to "less serious" dust particles in
the future, so once again, avoiding them altogether is
the best protection. If you want to avoid fumes and dust
by staying inside a vehicle or a building, then make sure
that the airconditioning is not just circulating the same
air over and over again while just cooling it, but
actually is filtering or refreshing it. Otherwise the air
quality in the vehicle or building might be worse than
outside on the Bangkok streets. Effects of moderate noise
pollution on sleeping patterns are well described, but
the long-term impact is unknown. What is known is that
prolonged exposure to loud noise, such as is the case of
road and construction workers, leads to
"boilermaker's disease " with severe hearing
loss, which can be avoided by using hearing protection
aids.
Question: As a lesbian, should I
be worried about Aids?
Answer: Your question seems to indicate that you
are thinking in terms of so-called risk groups. And
although that sort of thinking may be useful for
epidemiologists and policy makers it does not suffice to
make an estimate of the risk one is running as an
individual. The risk of becoming HIV infected at an
individual level is determined by an individual's
behavior rather than by belonging to one group or
another. And risky behavior in this context is all
behavior by which semen, vaginal secretion or blood of
one individual comes into contact with the mucous
membranes or bloodstream of another individual. So, even
if HIV is little present among lesbian women as a group,
it is not absent and it would still be wise to abstain
from risky sexual acts such as unprotected oral sex,
especially when one of the partners is having her period,
or sharing sexual toys such as vibrators.
Doctor Boonmaar is an Aids researcher in the Kingdom. Questions can be addressed to him in care of Pink Ink, or by sending email to pinkmonthly@hotmail.com.
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