Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Air quality in Tg Malim unhealthy, other towns on brink


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At least one town saw its air quality reach unhealthy levels today as much of the west coast of peninsular Malaysia was covered in a choking haze.

Hotspots in Sumatra are believed to be the cause of yet another haze that has left just 22 of 50 areas monitored by the Department of Environment with ‘good’ air quality.

Tanjung Malim hit the ‘unhealthy’ Air Pollutant Index (API) of 109 as of 5pm today with Port Klang (97) and Nilai (86) threatening to also break the 101 mark.


Healthy API readings are 50 and below, moderate 51-100 and unhealthy 101-200. Readings above 301 are deemed hazardous.

In October last year, the government closed at least 200 schools in areas where the API rose above 400.




Today’s haze follows a regional heatwave in recent days that caused scattered hotspots (areas of high temperature likely caused by open burning as seen via satellite imagery) in Sumatra and Malaysia.

Sumatra is registering multiple hotspots close to its east coast, which faces peninsular Malaysia, according to data from Singapore’s National Environmental Agency.

“Slight localised smoke was observed in central Sumatra while isolated hotspots were detected in other parts of Sumatra,” its website reported.

The haze in Malaysia has repeatedly made headlines with one of the worst incidents occurring in 2005 when the smoke-filled air forced a declaration of emergency to be announced in Port Klang and Kuala Selangor where the API soared over 500.

It prompted crisis talks with Indonesia due to lingering smoke from forest fires in Sumatra.
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