No matter how stifling the heat, every night Sanong Suepthai endures it -- sleeping under two layers of blankets propped up by a pillow placed on her chest, in a house with no air conditioning.
"The pillow helps let a little air in so I don't suffocate. But the smell is unbearable. I have to keep an inhaler in one nostril all the time," she said.
The "smell" that Sanong, a resident of Krok Somboon district in Prachin Buri, refers to is the odour of various chemicals wafting from a nearby factory about 1km from her orchard. The 76-year-old says that during the day, working among the trees in the garden provides some relief, but at night, the stench becomes intolerable. For two years she had to flee to Ubon Ratchathani to live with her younger sister.
