Horrible haze!

After several wonderful travel and visitor filled months it's now back to normality with a bump. Back to settling again into our life in Singapore and for the last week that has meant living with "Haze". 

Due to extensive and out of control forest fires in Sumatra and Indonesia, where the farmers use 'slash and burn' to clear forests in preparation for the planting of commercial crops such as palm oil, the air becomes filled with a mixture of pollutants including soot, carbon dioxide and other toxic gases. The problem flares up every dry season and Singapore is affected when the wind is blows in the wrong direction.

What this also means is that the sky can be white or pale grey with very little  sunshine,  the pollutants block this out, in fact very reminiscent of a grey November day in the UK. Whilst walking round the Gardens by the Bay yesterday morning it at first looked like there was a lovely sunrise; the sun was quite red and the sky was pink but I realised that it was 9am and the sun (which rises at 7am every morning) was too high in the sky for it to be sunrise.

There is also a 'smell' in the air, sometimes it smells like the day after bonfire night i.e. wood smoky, sometimes it has a more chemical like smell. Our balcony gets dirty even more quickly than usual and of course the washing that has been hung out to dry gets covered in 'muck'. 

 We have been lucky as since we moved here the level of haze has not been too serious, so far that is. The year before we moved it was really bad and the air became so toxic it was classified as hazardous  and the public were advised by the authorities to minimise outdoor activities and to wear masks whilst outside.

 Above is a photo I took yesterday of the National Environment Agency's app; myENV. It shows various weather and environmental readings, including the PSI which stands for  Pollutant Standards Index. The PSI values indicates the air quality on a scale from 0 to above 300, with 0 to 50 being Good, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 200 is classified as unhealthy and a PSI of 201to 300 as very unhealthy and finally if it's above 301 then it's 'hazardous'.

 So yesterday the reading was 104 and the air was officially 'unhealthy', it certainly felt like it. 

For healthy individuals short term exposure to unhealthy levels of  haze can cause irritation to the eyes, nose and throat but this soon resolves, for those with heart and lung diseases the effects may be much more serious and exacerbate their disease. 

I volunteer for the Riding for The Disabled and when the level of haze reaches 100 or above the sessions have to be cancelled, schools also cancel outdoor sport and play time and lots of other things are cancelled. Spending more time indoors also means more A/C use which increases the electricity bills, something none of us like.

 And to cap it all- yesterday afternoon not only was it so hazy I could barely see the buildings in the distance (normally they are clearly visible) but the smoke from 'fogging' was filling the air with yet more chemicals! I know that 'fogging' is done to kill insects, in particular mosquitos to help prevent dengue but I couldn't help but feel that humans could also be having a hard time breathing easily and safely!