Schools suspended classes and people were urged to stay indoors as a noxious haze blamed on forest fires in neighboring Indonesia thickened yesterday to dangerous levels over Kuala Lumpur and surrounding towns.
Environment Minister Adenan Satem said the haze, which appeared suddenly last week and has hung like a persistent brown cloud, is concentrated over Klang Valley. The valley includes Malaysia's main city Kuala Lumpur, the administrative capital Putrajaya and a sprawling residential neighborhood, Petaling Jaya.
"The situation is not getting better. It is getting worse," Adenan told a news conference. He said he will go to Jakarta immediately for talks with his counterparts to find a solution.
PHOTO: AP
An Environment Ministry statement said air quality in three places including Kuala Lumpur suburb Shah Alam had become hazardous. Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya were categorized as "very unhealthy" while five areas were shrouded in "unhealthy" air.
Hospitals reported a spurt in respiratory and eye ailments from the dust and smoke-laden white haze, causing red eyes, runny nose, wheezing coughs and sore throats.
Health Minister Chua Soi Lek urged people to drink more water, cut down outdoor activities, wear protective masks and to refrain from smoking.
Several schools in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur scrapped classes and sent students home early, telling them to remain indoors. Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said schools could suspend classes at their discretion.
The haze wrapping tropical Kuala Lumpur resembled fog in a European city on a wintry morning but its appearance belied the hot and humid conditions outdoors. People walked about with masks over their noses and mouths, or simply used handkerchiefs to shield themselves from the acrid, throat-burning smoke.
Visibility at Kuala Lumpur International Airport was 1km but no flights were affected. Visibility fell as low as 500m in downtown Kuala Lumpur, where the smoke even filtered into air-conditioned offices.
Adenan said an emergency would be declared if the air pollution index, or API, rose above 500, and all schools would be closed if it rises above 400.
The index, which measures harmful particles in the air, was 410 in Port Klang, 327 in Kuala Selangor and 316 in Shah Alam. A reading of above 300 is considered hazardous.
This is the first time the government has released the API in six years. It had stopped revealing the index in 1999, saying such statistics scare away tourists as they did in 1997 and 1998 when Malaysia was hit by a similar haze crisis.
The Meteorology Department said no respite was expected until October when rains would help wash away the haze, a cocktail of dust, ash, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.
On Tuesday, the government banned most forms of open burning, including camp fires and outdoor cooking. Vessels plying the Malacca Strait, a busy shipping lane that separates peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island, have been warned not to sail without navigational equipment.
Officials blamed the haze on 333 "hot spots" of fire in Riau and Sumatra that have been burning for more than a week.
But Gurmit Singh, who heads a nongovernmental environment watchdog, questioned that claim, and said the haze could also come from fires in Malaysia that have not been reported.
He said the haze in Kuala Lumpur smells of smoke, indicating the source is nearby. "We make things worse by our vehicle emissions and the local fires," he said.
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