- Traffic accidents now rank first among the leading causes of death of the Thai people, with a rapid increase from the rate of 12.4 per 100,000 population in 1989 to 31.5 per 100,000 in 1994.
- The population problem has become highly critical in Bangkok with the quantity of dust in the air at 3.4 times above the acceptable standard. This problem now extends to other large provincial cities. Water pollution now affects the major rivers of the country while the agricultural sector is facing the problem of inappropriate use of chemicals, fertilizers and insecticides.
- Problems pertaining to unsafe workplaces, accidents caused by machine operations and high-risk working environments greatly affect the quality of life of workers, particularly those in the industrial sector.
Even though the aforementioned problems are acknowledged by both the public and private sectors and studies on various aspects of this issue have been made, there is still a need to further develop effective strategies and actions to tackle them. This process requires more active intersectoral collaboration, with participation by the people, particularly in policy development and development of legal and financial measures, these problems are to be solved.
Apart from environmental problems, the hectic lifestyle in large cities has caused serious mental health problems in Thai society. People have to live in heavily congested areas, struggling to survive in a highly competitive, materialistic society while individual families are losing their potential to provide physical and mental support to their members. Even the stronger family ties in rural areas are gradually weakening due to the higher incidence of rural to urban migration.
Problems pertaining to the health service systems
Besides the problems experienced by the public, current health service systems are facing a number of problems arising from the rapid changes in socio-economic conditions and population composition, technologies. In addition, the stagnant managerial mechanism. And the slow process for national health development, all require effective and urgent adjustment and reorientation.
The main problems can be classified as follows :
