Schools in Muar close as haze worsens
The Star 21 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: All schools in Muar have been advised to temporarily close as the air quality in the district has reached dangerous levels.
Muar recorded an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 432 at 11am yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said schools should be closed if the level passed 400,
“School principals will still be able to work but students do not need to attend school until the level is below 400,” he said yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who chaired a National Security Council meeting to discuss the haze, said that co-curricular activities in all 204 schools in Muar should also be cancelled.
However, he said the Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia examinations would proceed as scheduled but students were required to wear protective masks during their tests.
He said the air quality in Muar reached an unhealthy level on Monday but rose to the dangerous level at 11pm on Tuesday.
“The Department of Environment has been monitoring the air pollution since Oct 15 via 51 monitoring stations in the peninsula. The API recorded in all stations showed healthy and moderate levels except for Muar and Malacca,” he said.
Malacca’s API was at an unhealthy level when it recorded a reading of 111 at 11am yesterday, he said.
Muhyiddin said an action plan was already activated to deal with the situation.
“We have asked the Muar authorities to inform the residents of developments. We are not hiding any information so that safety measures can be taken,” he said.
“The DOE is sending 10,000 masks to schools in Muar to be distributed to the students. Mineral water will also be given as people are encouraged to drink clean water during this bad weather,” he said.
He said the DOE would also begin cloud seeding as soon as possible.
Asked about the cause of the haze, Muhyiddin said it was due to fires in Sumatra which were sparked by the dry and hot weather.
He added that Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas had contacted Indonesian authorities to discuss how both countries could keep the situation under control.
In Muar, Education Department officer Ramli Abdul Samad said the department would begin distributing masks to the schools soon.
Ramli said a short shower in the afternoon had reduced the haze in some parts of the district, especially in the Sungai Mati areas, but there was still haze in Sungai Balang and along the coast.
Healthy API readings are below 50, moderate (51-100) and unhealthy (101-200). Readings above 301 is deemed hazardous.
For updates on the API nationwide, visit the department website at www.doe.gov.my.
Air quality in Muar hits hazardous levels
Elizabeth Looi Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: The Johor town of Muar, which faces Sumatra, was the worst hit yesterday by haze, which pushed its air quality to hazardous levels.
All schools in Muar were told to close temporarily after the Air Pollutant Index (API) there hit 432 late yesterday morning before dropping to 311 in the afternoon.
An API reading that exceeds 300 is considered hazardous. A 0-50 reading is healthy; 51-100 is moderate; 101-200 considered unhealthy; and 201-300, very unhealthy.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said some 10,000 masks were being delivered to the schools in Muar and the government would conduct cloud seeding soon.
Also hit was Malacca, which faces Sumatra, where the API was 111 at 11am before dropping below 100. Visibility at one point was reduced to 2km to 5km.
Residents said they had to keep their windows and doors closed the past few days. Other parts of Johor and the rest of Malaysia recorded good to moderate air quality levels.
The Meteorological Department said it expects hazy days to continue until the middle of next month due to the south-west wind that is blowing from Sumatra, which has more than 200 hot spots.
A department spokesman said the situation would improve once the monsoon season begins next month as the wind would be blowing from the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
'When the monsoon starts, Malaysia will not be affected much even if there is haze in Sumatra because the wind will be coming from the north-east,' the spokesman told The Straits Times.
He pointed out that the dry weather was caused partly by super typhoon Megi, which slammed into the northern Philippines on Monday and was now headed for southern China.
'The poor air quality is also because of open burning and perhaps forest fires due to the dry spell,' he said, adding that there were 14 hot spots in Malaysia, mostly in Selangor and Perak.
The annual haze in Malaysia is the result of land clearing by open burning in Indonesia and forest fires sparked by dry conditions.
In 2006, Malaysia was forced to close Port Klang and declare a state of emergency in Klang and Kuala Selangor when the API exceeded 500 and reduced visibility drastically.
Haze from Indonesia forces Malaysian schools to shut: report
Yahoo News 20 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Haze from fires burning in Indonesia has drifted over Malaysia's west coast, sending air pollution to dangerous levels in one town where schools were reportedly forced to shut on Wednesday.
In Muar, a coastal town on the narrow strait which separates the two countries, pollution levels shot up to 415 by Wednesday morning, well into the hazardous range which begins at 301. A rating of 0-50 is considered good.
"This is because of a hotspot from Sumatra. You can see the affected area on satellite images, it's caused by land clearing and plantations," an environment department official told AFP.
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said schools in Muar had been closed and thousands of masks were being distributed, according to the Star daily. Authorities were also rushing to carry out cloud seeding to disperse the smoke.
Muar is situated in Johor state, where most other towns were not so badly affected. However in the west coast tourist centre of Malacca, air quality had deteriorated to 106, which is in the "unhealthy" range.
Haze caused by fires in Indonesia builds up during the dry season, affecting tourism and contributing to health problems across the region.
Indonesia's government has outlawed land-clearing by fire but weak law enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.
