Malaysia: Unhealthy air in several west coast areas

PATRICK LEE The Star 26 Aug 15;

PETALING JAYA: Residents of Port Klang woke up Wednesday morning breathing dirtier air than usual after the Air Pollutant Index touched 101 at 6am. The air started deteriotating since 3am with a reading of 102. By 7am, the API reading was 100.

API reading of 51-100 is considered moderate while 100 to 200 unhealthy.

The readings at Seri Manjung in Perak was 98 on Wednesday morning while most parts of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya saw API readings hovering between 90 to 97.

Other parts of the country saw "Moderate" API levels, with only a few (in Kelantan, Perlis and Sarawak) having "Good" levels.

The ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre website this morning showed dozens of fire hotspots in Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan, with wind currents leading from there towards Malaysia.

Penang hit by haze
CHRISTOPHER TAN AND LO TERN CHERN The Star 25 Aug 15;

GEORGE TOWN: Penangites woke up to a hazy morning with the horizontal visibility level decreased sharply in Bayan Lepas, Penang.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department monitoring station in Bayan Lepas showed the visibility level decreasing from 7km at 8am to 4km at 11am.

The monitoring station in Butterworth also showed a decrease in horizontal visibility level from 6km (8am) to 5km (11am).

The Department of Environment online portal showed that the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings at its monitoring station in Seberang Jaya 2 recorded a constant increase from 49 (6am) to 50 (7am) followed by 51 (8am) and 53 at 11am.

The monitoring stations in Universiti Sains Malaysia recorded an API of 47 at 11am, while in the reading was Perai 35 (11am).