Air pollution on the up?

[x9200]

Simonjacob, it crossed 300 a while ago

*cough*
gave away my air-purifiers when I moved from shanghai over the summer.
I moved here because the pollution was getting too bad in China.. lol. guess I need to move to Idaho

Well, the Singapore haze thing is an annual thing, that goes away, and doesn't stay for the whole year

Unfortunately, it's not a once a year thing any longer. Even this thread is an evidence of something different but the haze now too lesser or larger extent is practically all year round. I recall events in May and June too. Also severity and duration of it around this time of the year increased.

[Strong Eagle]

They keep burning up the rain forest and displacing native wild life. The problem with palm oil trees is that the soil that exists in this part of Asia gets completely depleted with one cycle of palm oil trees... then it is worthless.

So, the companies kill more and more of the flora and fauna while making no attempt whatsoever to revive the depleted lands.

In reality, if, instead of burning, they bulldozed and plowed under the old palm oil trees, in a few years, the plant matter would decompose, providing a soil that could again support another crop. But, that is more expensive to do.

This is yet one more example of the blatant corruption that exists in Indonesia, and it is a lot of Singapore companies doing the corrupting. The Singapore government is disingenuous at best, and more likely, complicit, in permitting this kind of pollution and destruction of the environment to continue.

[earthfriendly]

Singapore offered its assistance many times but was turned down. It does not want to be too interfering / aggressive. Read that Indonesia had identified four culprits so far and will take action against them.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/asia/indo ... pollution/

[Strong Eagle]

Singapore offered its assistance many times but was turned down. It does not want to be too interfering / aggressive. Read that Indonesia had identified four culprits so far and will take action against them.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/asia/indo ... pollution/

Yah... Indonesia is going to take action, just like every year, and, monkeys are going to fly out of me arse.

[earthfriendly]

Lol! Okie, okie, not too familiar with the workings of the govt there. But it looks good on paper.

[bgd]

There are some positives. I had East Coast Park to myself this morning. In all the years I've been here, I've never seen it so empty.

Of course, perhaps there were people, I just couldn't see them.

[x9200]

Correction: You did not have EC Park for yourself, but polluted EC Park for yourself.
BTW, we were wondering with my wife just yesterday what made people running/jogging near BBK Nature Park with PSI exceeding 250 and no masks. Although the subject of running still needs to be by me better explored I always thought this sort of exercise is mostly for your health.

[earthfriendly]

Singapore is going to get involved.

The Transboundary Haze Pollution Act punishes polluters who cause haze. They can be fined up to $100,000 per day, capped at a total of $2 million.

Dr Balakrishnan said: "The National Environment Agency has written to the Indonesian authorities, asking for a list of companies whom the Indonesian investigations have shown may be implicated in this. Pursuant to our Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, we will be issuing notices in the days to come."

[ecureilx]

Correction: You did not have EC Park for yourself, but polluted EC Park for yourself.
BTW, we were wondering with my wife just yesterday what made people running/jogging near BBK Nature Park with PSI exceeding 250 and no masks. Although the subject of running still needs to be by me better explored I always thought this sort of exercise is mostly for your health.

Nea "cough" posted some comparison ...

Like if you are out the whole day at dangerous Haze levels you will have inhaled 1000 units of PMI 2.5 Particles.

For comparison smokers inhale between 10,000 to 40,000 units of particle for every stick they smoke..

I do know smokers who still smoke and do their gym activities, jog, cycle, even when haze is starting to get to me.

[alesscor]

Do you have a source for those figures? If that's indeed true I'd feel a lot more relaxed about the haze but it seems a bit too extreme...


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[x9200]

It is likely true. I briefly checked the numbers for the emissions associated with tabacco smoke and they are 2 orders of magnitude higher in average comparing to what we have now around. Both based on pm2.5.
E.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735100

[alesscor]

Quiet interesting. Not to play down the haze at all but it does put it a bit into proportion for an ex (and still occassional) smoker...

Although the correct conclusion would probably be to stop smoking forever

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[x9200]

Yep, I think it more gives tabacco smoke the right dimensions - I found elsewhere that an increase in pm2.5 concentration by 5 ug/m3 only for annual exposure increases the risk of heart diseases by 13%.

[ecureilx]

Do you have a source for those figures? If that's indeed true I'd feel a lot more relaxed about the haze but it seems a bit too extreme...


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Look up the NEA Facebook page ..

Btw, even when I used to smoke, I could never stand haze. Something to do with the composition of haze, maybe ?

[bgd]

Look up the NEA Facebook page ..

Btw, even when I used to smoke, I could never stand haze. Something to do with the composition of haze, maybe ?

That reminds me, 2 years ago when the haze was bad, I saw a guy wearing a mask with a hole cut for his cigarette.

Anyway doesn't seem to be improving. The rain last night made no difference. Traffic seems to be no heavier but the patterns have changed. I'm seeing delays at places which are normally clear. Probably nothing to do with haze.