The laughing police of Bangkok

Don't laugh, but more than 1,000 Bangkok traffic policemen are currently receiving laughing lessons in order to ease the stress of working on the dirty streets of the capital.

The Laughing Project aims to restore and improve their mental and physical health, by teaching the policemen and wonmen to laugh using different parts of the body.

In the two-hour therapy sessions, participants are taught how to laugh from their face, their head, their fingers and how to use their diaphragms to have a good chortle.



Instructor Wanlop Piyamanotham says laughing properly helps the traffic police take in oxygen to replace the carbon dioxide they breathe in all day every day, increasing brain and body alertness.

"Laughter therapy detoxes every part of body to welcome the New Year," he claims.

Controlling traffic is considered to be one of the unhealthiest jobs in Bangkok, and traffic police officers spend up to 16 hours a day on the shift work.