If you've been waking up to the smell of burnt forests lately, well you're not alone. Unfortunately due to some unscrupulous people who have no respect for the environment in a country that shall not be named, we have to suffer the choking hazard. Having a toddler of my own has made me very concerned, and utterly angry at these money hungry animals. Its not just the smoke that concerns me, but the sub PM10 particles (particles less than 10 microns) that's being carried by the smoke. These particles are so tiny that it penetrates our lung tissues, and get collected in our body for years, potentially causing lung diseases and even cancer. You can checkout about PM10 particles here and also here.
The Viz below is an overview on the Air Pollution Index between 24th - 30th July 2013, data was taken from the Department of Environment Malaysia. The particular week was chosen because it had the highest air pollutant level in 2013 so far. The index has 5 different levels, the air quality level is considered good at levels 50 and below, anything above 100 is considered unhealthy, and if the index reaches 300 it is already hazardous. As a comparison, during the 1997 haze crisis, the index reached a maximum of 930, which gave a visibility of 10 meters. In the recent haze, my area of Shah Alam, reached at about 280, anything beyond 1.5 km is completely blanketed by the haze. Luckily so far it seems that the worst is over, but remembering what happened in 1997 where mortality rates jumped 70% especially for the elderly and the very young, one can never be too careful.
Move the slider to see the different dates, click the chart to highlight and filter information, and hover your mouse on any location for more details.
p/s: The sudden reduction of the index on the 26th was due to quite a decent rainfall particulaly around Shah Alam and Klang.
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