White Smoke Causes Chaos On Bangkok Streets, Turns Out To Be Fruit Ripening Chemicals

Bangkokians scared by mysterious white smoke

After last Friday’s series of bombings, Bangkokians got a brief scare again by a puff of mysterious white smoke on Kanchanaphisek Road in outer Bangkok. On 5th August 2019, a Twitter user @ten2thirteen posted a picture of the roads filled with white smoke coming out of mysterious packages on the far left lane.

Motorists thought that it was another bomb scare

Translation: What is this? This is in front of The Explace Mall on Kanchanaphisek Road, close to Klong Nong Yai area. People are only driving on the right lane of the expressway now.
Source: @ten2thirteen

Scared of the possibility of facing another string of explosions, all cars moved to the far right lane to get away from the unknown source of smoke as much as they could. Some people even got out of their vehicles and ran to the pavements for their own safety, causing traffic jams in the process.

Actually fruit ripening chemicals

After being investigated by the police, it turns out the mysterious packages were bags of ethylene, a flammable hydrocarbon chemical compound in its solid form. It is often used in the Thai agriculture industry to promote ripening in fruits.

When ethylene gets mixed with water, it can produce smoke or vapour as shown in the photo that was tweeted.

One of the bags that contained ethylene
Image credit: Thairath

It’s suspected that these ethylene containers must’ve dropped from one of the fruit delivery trucks. Then the fabric bags got soaked in the rain and produced white smoke, which scared motorists.

Police waited for the smoke to clear up before disposing the remains carefully, and then got the traffic flow back to normal again.  

Important to stay calm instead of spreading paranoia

After the Bangkok explosions last week, it is understandable that residents are on edge. Staying calm and vigilant is important in such instances even if nothing harmful is found in the end.

If you see any suspicious items, do not hesitate to contact the following numbers:

Police Emergency Hotline: 191
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit: 02-243-1256

Cover image adapted from: @ten2thirteen