If it were a normal Sunday, I would have complained about the consumption of tyres in Thailand and written about alternative energy and recycling. In normal times, most used tyres in Thailand would e used as fuel at cement factories. Since 1998, cement factories in Thailand have burned used tyres as an alternative energy source to reduce the dependence on bunker oil and coal. Tyres are known as a good energy source as its energy value is equal to that of coal. Burned tyres can produce high temperatures for cement manufacturing incinerators that require inferno-like temperatures of 1,800C.
PHOTO: PAWAT LAOPAISARNTAKSIN
Old tyres have also been reused for good causes. The Fisheries Department has been using tyres as artificial coral reefs. Tyre companies, including Michelin, collect used tyres to create playgrounds. Tyres are used as boat bumpers at piers, and for mixing with asphalt to pave roads, to name but a few.
But this is not a normal time.
During the ongoing protests - as well as in past protests - tyres are used as bunkers, or rally fortresses. Street protesters have been rolling out hundreds of tyres to burn. The thick, black smoke from burned tyres blocks soldiers from seeing what's going on. A bird's-eye view of Bangkok streets last week showed black clouds from the burning tyres.
Perhaps it is an over-reaction to complain about air pollution from burning tyres while residents are trying to evade bullets.
Yet the Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (Earth) group - a local environmental non-government organisation - recently issued a warning to residents about the potential health hazards and pollution from the black smoke. Sixty per cent of tyres are made of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and contain pollutant chemical substances like benzene phenol - a source of carcinogenic dioxin produced when tyres are burned at temperatures lower than 800C.
The good news for Bangkok residents, soldiers, UDD supporters and snipers alike is that the smoke from burning tyres can be carcinogenic from long-term exposure - like more than a decade.
In the immediate term, smoke from burned tyres is a health hazard for residents, especially for those whose houses are located near the fires. For the environment, burned tyres give off carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, global warming emissions into the atmosphere.
PHOTO: SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL
Residue from tyres, when washed away, contain pollutants in the contaminated water, which will cause plants to wither. Imagine Wireless Road after extended exposure to burning tyres. And as tyre burning continued, residents - particularly children and elders - could suffer from respiratory problems caused by the black smoke. Such health problems may seem trivial compared with the scale of the political crisis we have been experiencing. Yet, imagine you have burning tyres close to your home and the paramedics cannot gain access to your house while your ageing immediate family members are choking from dangerous fumes.
While claiming that their protests are peaceful and noble, these protesters have been dousing petrol on the tyres. Petrol runs away into sewage gutters connected to the gutters of nearby hospitals such as Chulalongkorn Hospital and the Police Hospital.
We do not know when the political scene will calm down. But in the near future, we can expect the government will issue laws that regulate protest activity in Thailand to ensure that protests in the future will be peaceful and won't create social unrest.
Chaiyan Chaiporn, from Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science, told Earth Alert that the ideal protection law against protest activities - such as those found in Britain - should not only control the number of protesters, time and place, but it should also regulate materials that protesters bring with them to rally sites.
"If protesters have to use loudspeakers, the London or British police forces will make sure the volume will not violate the rights of others. London police would definitely deny access to any protesters who bring tyres to make a wall around the protest site. The police would say that we can look after your safety," said Mr Chaiyan.
Certainly, political rallies in Thailand have a long way to go before they match the standards elswhere.
I wish to see this law control the materials protesters are allowed to bring in. It is hard to prevent people from inciting unrest, yet it is possible to nip the problems in the bud by banning risky substances such as cooking gas, petrol and tyres.
Put it in legal text and in the future, people will at least have an idea what a peaceful protest looks like.
At the UDD's protest site at the Ratchaprasong intersection, anti-government protesters used tyres and bamboo poles to build a "Bang Rachan Fortress", referring to a historic battle of old.
It shocked me when the UDD started fencing the protest site with tyres and rolling in gas tanks for their cooking.
It was more shocking that the media and society did not see the tyre-walls and cooking gas as potential threats. Perhaps we are all numb, insensitive with all the pollution and health hazards. Perhaps only snipers can get our attention.
Next time, we should make sure the law makes sure any protests are conducted within an open area with security provided by the state, and with limited loudspeakers. Next time, let protesters eat at a canteen or from street vendors like the rest of us and put their waste in public rubbish depots just like the rest of us, if possible.
Protesters - whatever colour of shirt - are first and foremost Thais. There must be no fences or walls at their protest sites since they are, after all, public spaces.
There is an old adage that says a good fence makes a good neighbour. On Bangkok's streets, tyres may make good fences but they are a recipe for anarchy - politically, socially and environmentally.
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