WE may not have autumn, winter, summer or spring, but people joke that we have our own four seasons: hot, wet, flood and haze.
While the flood is localised to certain parts of the country, there’s no escaping the haze caused by winds bringing in smoke from forest fires in Sumatra, usually from May to October. Southeast Asian governments are working with their Indonesian counterparts to combat this haze problem, but for the time being, it looks like it will remain an annual event for the foreseeable future.
During a haze, the air we breathe may contain particulates, carbon monoxide, dirt and other pollutants. The main danger of the haze is respiratory illness, although it can also affect the eyes and skin. Asthmatics are at a higher risk, but many children and babies are also down with breathing problems. These are the susceptible groups, along with the elderly.
Air pollution levels are measured, among others, through a system called the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI). A PSI value in the range of zero to 50 is considered “good” while a PSI value in the range of 101 to 200 is considered “unhealthy”. Anything above 300 is considered “hazardous”, which may trigger mild aggravation of respiratory illness symptoms among those suffering from chronic lung or heart ailments. For others, it may trigger coughs, eye irritation and sneezing.
The government has summarised the air quality categories based on the PSI and how they affect general health.
After being lost at sea for close to half a day because of the haze in 1998, I realised that it keeps coming back year after year, and despite the best efforts of various countries, we still have not been able to eliminate the problem.
Once, I saw a shocking video of a huge area almost completely devoid of greenery. What I saw were dead trees with a few farmers here and there, who were employing the slash-and-burn method of agriculture.
Every year, fires will spread through the area and there won’t be enough people to stop the blaze, which are often started to clear land for plantations, especially those producing palm oil and pepper.
The slash-and-burn method is also used on peat land and this will make the smoke even more dense.
Indonesia is today the world’s largest palm oil producer. It is also the main cause of the annual haze that is badly affecting Singapore and Malaysia.
I hope a more genuine effort is put into stopping this annual hazy problem.
LIONEL PERERA,PORT DICKSON, NEGRI SEMBILAN