Air quality worsens in 4 areas today

Telekom Tower in Taman Bukit Pantai, taken from Bangsar on September 9 and today. Air quality has worsened in several areas including the Klang Valley, where visibility is poor. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Chan Cheng Tuan, September 26, 2015.

The Air Pollutant Index (API) readings inched up several notches from this morning until noon, with four places recording unhealthy levels at midday, the worst being Balok Baru in Kuantan, Pahang, at 131.

Three other places with unhealthy readings are Indera Mahkota (Pahang) at 116, Kemaman (Terengganu) at 126 and Bandaraya Melaka (Malacca) at 120.

Thirty-five areas registered moderate API readings including the entire Klang Valley, although visibility was poor and the smell of smoke was detectable.

At noon today, Banting in Klang had an API reading of 61, while nearby Port Klang recorded a reading of 66.

Putrajaya had an API reading of 62; Shah Alam, 58; Petaling Jaya, 63 and Cheras, 58.

Neighbouring Negri Sembilan registered an API of 67 at its industrial town of Nilai, while state capital Seremban recorded 72.

According to the Department of Environment DoE website, an API in the 0-50 range is good, 51-100 is moderate, 100-200 is unhealthy, 200 to 300 very unhealthy and above 300, hazardous.

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks past buildings enveloped in smoke in Kuala Lumpur today. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, September 26, 2015.The DoE said previously that readings could be moderate but visibility poor because API readings represented an average.

Visibility readings on the Meteorological Department website showed less than a kilometre for Petaling Jaya from 8am till 1pm today.

Sepang, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, recorded visibility readings of 0.7km at 1pm.

Malaysia and Singapore have been battling smog resulting from land clearing fires in Indonesia for years.

On Friday, Singapore closed schools and began distributing face masks to elderly and vulnerable people.

Last week, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the signing of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Malaysia and Indonesia to tackle the perennial problem had been postponed for the second time, because his Indonesian counterpart was engaged with the handling of operations to put out fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

- TMI