Air quality declines in Klang Valley

The Star 13 Jun 09;

PETALING JAYA: Air quality in parts of the country have deteriorated due to local peat fires in Selangor and forest fires in Indonesia bringing over haze to Malaysia.

At 5pm Friday, Port Klang and Cheras recorded unhealthy API readings of 136 and 109 respectively. Shah Alam’s API reading went up to 120 from the 95 recorded at 11am.

Overall, 21 areas recorded good air quality while 26 areas recorded moderate air quality readings.

Other areas close to heading into the unhealthy quality range of between 101 and 200 include Kajang (100), Batu Muda (99), Petaling Jaya (93) and Putrajaya (92).

Compared to Thursday, yesterday’s API readings showed a general decline in air quality in the Klang Valley.

Thursday’s API readings for Petaling Jaya was 76 while Cheras recorded a reading of 73.

The three peat fires identified in Klang and Sepang coupled with trans-boundary haze from Indonesia has led to unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings in Port Klang, Shah Alam and Cheras.

The fires are a regular occurrence in Sumatra and Borneo during the dry season due to fires being started to clear land before the planting season starts.

The dry season also occurs in Malaysia which tends to ignite peat fires that compounds the annual haze problem.

As of 5pm, visibility in Subang was at 5km. Petaling Jaya recorded visibility readings of 2km at 9am which later improved to 4km at 5pm.

Visibility at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport went to as low as 3km to which an airport spokesperson said the situation was being monitored.

Haze a whiplash of El Nino effect
Veena Babulal, and V. Shankar Ganesh, The New Straits Times 13 Jun 09;

The people will have to put up with hazy skies and starless nights until there is more rain to disperse the pollutant particles and lift the dry weather, Meteorological Department Climatologist Dr Wan Azli Wan Hassan said yesterday.
He said the grainy skies, weak winds during the southwest monsoon period from June to August, the low average rainfall and rising surface temperatures in the Pacific ocean were a whiplash of the El Nino effect.

The rainfall for the period June to August is 100 to 200mm, but there has been less rain because of these conditions.

Wan Azli declined to forecast when enough rain would fall to clear the skies.

Port Klang, Shah Alam and Cheras in Kuala Lumpur were the hardest hit areas.
Port Klang recorded an unhealthy API (Air Pollutant Index) reading of 136, Shah Alam (120) and Cheras with 109 as of 5pm yesterday. This compared with a reading of 125, 82 and 73 respectively at 5pm on Thursday.

AnAPI reading of 101 and above is unhealthy, 51 to 100 is moderate and 50 and below is good.

Kajang with a reading of 100, Nilai (96), Petaling Jaya (93) and Putrajaya

(92) narrowly missed the unhealthy level. The API readings of these areas have increased steadily along with the readings at Port Klang and Cheras over the past three days.

Other areas that recorded moderate readings included Port Dickson (74), Seremban (71), Miri (73), Muar (70) and Malacca (71).

The API reading of Tanjung Malim dropped from 93 as of 5pm on Thursday to 61 yesterday.

Areas with the cleanest air as at 11am yesterday included Kangar (28), Sandakan (28), Kuching (29), Limbang (29) and Tawau (36).

There were 57 hot spots in Sumatra yesterday, a drop from 98 on Thursday.

The number of hot spots in central and northern Sumatra had increased due to the dry weather.

There were six isolated hot spots detected in the Peninsular and 10 in Sabah and Sarawak.

On a heartening note, Wan Azli said the cloudy skies could bring rain.

“Once the clouds return, it means there is moisture in the air and the rain could come soon.”

In Kuantan, the state government, environment and health committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said the haze situation in Pahang remained under control, especially after heavy rainfall in several places.

“Yesterday, the Air Pollution Index for Balok Baru, Kuantan recorded a moderate reading at 56, followed by Jerantut at 53 and in Indera Mohkota, Kuantan the air quality was good with a reading of 41,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment (DOE) director-general Rosnani Ibarahim said that it was still unnecessary for the wearing of face masks for residents in areas where the API reading showed unhealthy air quality.

“The DOE will issue further directive if it is necessary for residents to wear face masks,” she said when contacted by Bernama.

She said the department would continue to conduct frequentmonitoring of the air quality level nationwide and take necessary measures to address the problem.

In Klang, Selangor executive councillor for environment, Elizabeth Wong, said 70 per cent of the haze was caused by trans-boundary factors such as forest fires on the Indonesian island.

She said the authorities here were doing their best to control local contributory factors like open burning and forest fires.

At the moment, she said there were only a few local hotspots in Johan Setia here, Jalan Kebun in Shah Alam and Tanjung Dua Belas in Kuala Langat.

The situation in Klang and Port Klang was bad with API readings reaching 138 at 11am yesterday.

Port operations were continuing as normal but visibility at sea was

drastically reduced. The usual visibility range is about 10 nautical miles for ships but this was down to 0.8 miles yesterday morning.

Wong said strict enforcement to curb open burnings would be carried out with the help of the police.

The dry weather could worsen the haze situation, especially from September as the El Nino sets in.

State executive councillor in charge of health Dr Xavier Jayakumar

said all hospitals were prepared for an increase in the number of haze related illness.