- andrew-golf wrote:
- last record is 226 in 1997
Singapore smog reaches record high 321: govt
SINGAPORE (2nd UPDATE) - Smog levels in Singapore hit the highest level on record Wednesday, June 19, as the air pollutant index approached the "hazardous" level, angering Singaporeans and tourists in the city-state.
The index soared to 321 at 10:00 pm, according the the website of the National Environment Agency (NEA), well past the 200-mark considered as "very unhealthy" and near the "hazardous" level of 301. The most severe haze reading in Singapore was in September 1997 when the number peaked at 226.
Anything above 200 is considered "very unhealthy" particularly to the elderly, young children and people with heart and lung disease.
"We are going to leave Singapore two days early because we are having trouble breathing," said Zac Kot, 40, a business owner from the United States who was on holiday with his wife and two young girls.
Indignant Singaporeans attacked their government on the web for its handling of the problem. Disposable medical masks flew off drugstores' shelves as consumers and companies bought them in bulk and placed orders for more.
Even tourists from Indonesia -- traditionally the largest source of visitors to Singapore -- protested about the smoky haze from Sumatra island, where some farmers and plantations deliberately set off fires to clear land for cultivation.
"It's not very good, and it's getting harder to breathe. I just don't know where to go," said Rangga Adisapoetra, 30, a risk management executive from Indonesia's main island Java attending a mobile communications and broadcasting expo.
"Maybe tomorrow, I'll visit Universal Studios," he told AFP, temporarily lifting a grey face mask to speak.
The pollution problem peaks during the June-September dry season, when monsoon winds transport thick clouds of smoke from Sumatra to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
Singapore is a densely populated city-state of 5.3 million inhabitants which welcomed 14.4 million visitors in 2012, 14.5% of them from Indonesia.
The Indonesian forestry ministry said on Wednesday that it plans to use cloud seeding to try and unleash rain on Sumatra.
Firefighters in the ground are finding it difficult to extinguish fires because they are smoldering underground in carbon-rich peat land, mostly in palm oil plantations, an official said.
Air quality also worsened on Wednesday in Malaysia, particularly in the country's south near Singapore.
Southeast Asia's worst haze crisis took place in 1997-1998, causing widespread health problems and costing the regional economy billions of dollars as a result of business and air transport disruptions. The last major outbreak took place in 2006.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told journalists in Jakarta that his country had taken measures against the problem and "we have not had for some time now a recurrence of this type of situation."
"If there are any companies, national or foreign, who have been involved in any slash-and-burning activities then they must be held to account. Such a wish is not only the wish of our neighbours, but is above all our wish."
Singapore officials continued to take to social media to address citizens' rising anger.
Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam strongly rebutted online criticism that the government was being soft on Indonesia -- a sprawling archipelago of more than 240 million people.
"Every country is sovereign and we can't intervene in the actions in other countries," he said in a Facebook post.
Shanmugam and environment minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday, June 18, spoke with their Indonesian counterparts to emphasize the urgency of the situation and offer help to fight the fires in Sumatra.
On Monday, June 17, an Indonesian forestry ministry official, Hadi Daryanto, shifted some of the blame to Malaysia and Singapore, saying their palm oil companies that had invested in Indonesia were also responsible.
Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), a palm oil company listed on the Singapore Exchange with operations in Sumatra, said Wednesday that it has had a "zero burning policy" since 1997.
GAR's website says it is the world's second largest palm oil plantation company with a total planted area of 464,300 hectares and a market capitalization of $6.0 billion as of March.
"Only mechanical means such as excavators and bulldozers are used in our land preparation," a spokesman told AFP.
Subject: Re: Crazy PSI vs Golf matters 
Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:16 pm
