Monday, 18 June 2012

Haze In My Neighbourhood...

It was a nice day, but I smelled something fishy outside. I went out and I was surprised to see this, haze is even invading my neighbourhood, oh-mee-oh-my!

Haze Is Invading My School! What A Crisis!!!!!

Haze in the morning....

Sunday, 17 June 2012

API readings drop in S'gor, KL due to rain

Posted on 17 June 2012 - 07:28pm

Last updated on 17 June 2012 - 07:33pm

BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR (June 17, 2012): Heavy rainfall in most parts of the Klang Valley this morning has lowered Air Pollutant Index (API) readings at four locations in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

An API reading of 127 was recorded in Port Klang at 11am today, compared with 142 at the same time yesterday while lower readings were also recorded in Shah Alam (116), Kuala Selangor (110) and Petaling Jaya (102).

API readings at 11am yesterday in Shah Alam was 130, Kuala Selangor (101) and Petaling Jaya (131). According to a statement from the Department of Environment (DOE) today, 24-hour surveillance on 10 areas showed good API levels, 37 areas with moderate readings while no areas were deemed unhealthy.

Poor levels of air quality was reportedly caused by cross-border haze being blown in from Sumatra, Indonesia, it added.

A satellite image issued by the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) showed 80 hotspots located in Sumatra compared with nine on Friday.

The satellite image also showed that movement of haze carried by southwesterly winds at hotspots in Riau, central Sumatra will move to the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia covering the Klang Valley.

The department stated they have mobilised the National Haze Action Plan and activated the Open Burning Prevention Action Plan in all states to monitor air quality nationwide.

The public have also been reminded that prohibition of open burning in Selangor, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is still enforced. – Bernama

Source : http://www.thesundaily.my/news/409783

Alarm Raised Over Haze

PETALING JAYA: Authorities are stepping up vigilance nationwide against the haze that is expected to worsen in the next few days.

The Department of Environment (DOE) has imposed a blanket ban on open burning in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya while the Education Ministry is monitoring the situation. The Malaysian Medical Association is also advising the public on how to deal with the haze.

The ministry opened an operations room in Putrajaya yesterday to monitor the haze and keep schools informed on whether to stay open.

“We know the haze is becoming worse,” said Education director-generalTan Sri Abd Ghafar Mahmud.

He added that the operations room would liaise with district education offices to keep them informed on how bad the haze is at the different locales.

Breathe easy: Unipharm Pharmacy Subang Jaya assistant Noor Azlina Baharudin giving out face masks to Amir Zakee Adnal and his family after several places in the Klang Valley recorded unhealty API levels yesterday.

The 2005 circular issued to school heads when Malaysia was hit with one of the worst incidents of haze remains in force.

Schools will be closed once the Air Pollutant Index (API) in their area reaches 400 while all sporting and outdoor activities will be cancelled once the API hits the “hazardous” level of 300.

Abd Ghafar said: “We want the principals to monitor the situation in their schools and to contact the district education office for the next course of action.”

As at 5pm yesterday, the air quality had deteriorated in Selangor with seven areas recording an unhealthy reading of more than 100 on the API up from Friday's four areas.

It was reported that the haze originated from peat and forest fires in the Riau district of central Sumatra. Yesterday morning, a Nasa satellite reported 591 hotspots in Sumatra.

Several parts of Selangor, however, got a brief respite from the choking smog after heavy rain in Hulu Selangor.

The DOE warned: “Those convicted of open burning will be fined up to RM500,000 or jailed up to five years or both. A maximum compound of RM2,000 may also be meted out.”

Its director-general Halimah Hassan said in a statement yesterday that cremation, burning of religious paraphernalia and barbecues were exempted from the ban.

However, the situation is not so bad as to require flight diversions, according to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd.

“So far, there are no abnormal operations,” said senior general manager of operations Datuk Azmi Murad.

Source : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/6/17/nation/11497524&sec=nation

Eight areas record unhealthy air quality at noon

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Putrajaya is among the eight areas which recorded unhealthy air quality due to the haze with the air pollution index (API) reading exceeding 100 at noon today.

The API recorded in Putrajaya at 11am was 101.

The other areas which recorded high API were Port Klang (142), Petaling Jaya (131), Shah Alam (130), Banting (120), Kuala Selangor (101) in Selangor as well as Cheras (133) and Batu Muda (128) here.

According to the Department of Environment (DOE) website, www.doe.gov.my, the number of areas with unhealthy air quality rose to eight compared with seven at 7am.

A total of 31 areas from 51 DOE air quality monitoring stations throughout the country which recorded moderate API included areas such as Nilai, Negri Sembilan, with a reading of 100 while 11 other areas recorded good air quality.

An API of 101 to 200 denotes an unhealthy level. Air quality is assumed to be good for an API of zero to 50, moderate for an API of 51 to 100, very unhealthy for an API of 201 to 300 and hazardous for an API of more than 301.

The deterioration in air quality experienced in the Klang Valley now is due to the cross-border haze from Sumatra, Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Meteorological Department forecasts no rain nationwide in the morning but showers in the evening in several states.

According to the department’s website, Malaysia is experiencing the Southwest Monsoon which contributes to the hot and dry weather.

The situation is expected to last until September. — Bernama

Visitors take pictures against the haze covering the Putra Mosque (left) and Putra Perdana, the office of the prime minister, in Putrajaya on June 16, 2012. — Reuters pic June 16, 2012

Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/eight-areas-record-unhealthy-air-quality-at-noon

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

London air pollution at record high

Thursday 15 March 2012 16.36 GMT, air pollution in London hit record levels on Thursday due to a combination of traffic fumes, relatively still weather and an influx of dirty air from the north of England and northern France.
Pollution levels in London are even higher than last Easter, when the government was forced to issue a smog alert.
Adults and children with lung problems, adults with heart problems and all older people should not take any "strenuous physical activity" while pollution is at the recorded levels. The general population is advised to reduce exercise too.
Since December 2008, air quality stations in London have been monitoring smaller particles called PM2.5s, which are able to enter the bloodstream more easily and cause more respiratory damage than larger particles, such as PM10s.
Poor air quality has been linked to nearly one in five deaths a year in London.
The capital's poor air quality, caused largely by traffic, has seen the UK facing £300m in fines for breaching EU targets.

Air Pollution Increases Risk Of Repeated Cardiac Events

One block falls, pushing the one in front of it, making another one fall, and then another. This figurative image, a chain reaction of falling blocks, can be seen in recent scientific research that shows the domino effect and consequences of the environment on health. Tel Aviv University (TAU) researcher Dr. Yariv Gerber of TAU’s School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine has discovered that air pollution can impact cardiac events like heart attack and stroke as well as cause repeated episodes of these cardiac events.
As a result, air pollution is not only a danger to the environment but it is also harmful for the human body. It can have major risks such as respiratory infections, lung cancer, and heart disease. The project was done in collaboration with Professor Yaacov Drory and funded by the Environmental and Health Fund in Jerusalem. In the study, cardiac patients who lived in areas with high pollution had a 40 percent higher chance of having a second heart attack as compared to patients who lived in places with low air pollution. The findings were presented at the San Diego Epidemiological Meeting of the American Heart Association in March and the Annual Meeting of the Israeli Heart Society in April.
“We know that like smoking cigarettes, pollution itself provokes the inflammatory system. If you are talking about long-term exposure and an inflammatory system that is irritated chronically, pollution may well be involved in the progression of atrial sclerosis that manifests in cardiac events,” remarked Gerber in a prepared statement.
Gerber started the project with the goal of demonstrating a connection between the long-term effects of air pollution and the heart attack risks for myocardial infarction (MI) patients. In the experiment, the scientists analyzed data from 1,120 first-time MI patients who had stayed at one of eight hospitals in central Israel between 1992 and 1993. The participants were all under 65 years of age when admitted to the hospital and were then given a follow-up interview in 2011, 19 years after initial contact with the investigators.
The researchers measured air quality in the areas where patients lived with monitoring stations and a group of scientists looked at the information collected at the Technion in Haifa. They adjusted for outside factors like disease severity and socio-economic status, and concluded that there was a relationship between pollution and negative clinical outcomes like mortality, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke. When compared to the statistics of participants who lived in less polluted areas, the participants residing in the most polluted areas had a 43 percent higher risk of having a second heart attack or suffering congestive heart failures as well as 46 percent higher chance of having a stroke. The study also reported that people who lived in heavily polluted areas were 35 percent more likely to die 20 years after the first attack then those who lived in less polluted areas.
The influence of air pollution on the human body maybe even greater than what was discovered in the study.