Many parts of the country have been experiencing poor air quality. It is a crisis we’ve faced for decades, with no apparent end.
When it appears, we get distressed and demand action. When it subsides, we return to our usual lives and largely ignore the problem. This behaviour is true for the individual and the government.
While we blame our neighbours for this seasonal air pollution, we must take responsibility for our endemic, year-round poor air quality, especially in our cities.
This exacerbates the problem. Any regular observance of our air quality during non-haze periods, will show how polluted our air is, and how heavily dependent we are on rain to clean it.
The image below is taken of Ipoh City from a nearby hill at 10am during a non-haze period when we had no rain for three days.
In the city, things do not look so bad, but from a distance, we can see the significant air pollution prevalent in most of our cities. It has been going on for decades and has only worsened with time.
Imagine the consequences of breathing in this poor air quality for decades on our children.
Hence, while the seasonal worsening of our air quality from open burning in the region is an unpleasant and significantly unhealthy event, the real crisis is our daily air pollution.
As a nation, we have yet to deal with the climate emergency individually, as a community, or as a government.
What is in the contents of the polluted air or smoke coming our way? What is in the ambient, year-round polluted air we breathe?
A good discussion on the toxic substances present in the seasonally transboundary haze is in this article.
The seasonal haze contains toxic gases and small particles, most under 2.5 microns (PM2.5 microns or less).
The chemicals include ozone, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, acrolein, and benzene, some with potential long-term carcinogenic effects.
The ultrafine particulate matter (PM2.5 microns or less) can lodge deep in the lungs and have short, and long-term effects on cardiovascular, and pulmonary systems.
But this is also the same for our year-round ambient air pollution, which we ignore.
There is extensive data on the contents and effects of city air pollution from vehicles and industries.
The State of Global Air report and interactive website produced by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IHME’s) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) offers data on Malaysia’s ambient air pollution and its effects.
The data estimates that air pollution was among the Top 10 risk factors for deaths in Malaysia in 2019, accounting for nearly six per cent of all deaths (more than 11,000).
Considered separately, ambient particulate matter (PM2.5) ranked as the leading risk factor for deaths, and household air pollution (HAP) ranked eighth.
Three per cent of total air-pollution-attributable deaths in Malaysia are in children under five, and six per cent are in adults over 70. Air pollution reduced life expectancy in Malaysia by 0.7 years.
A State of Global Air report shows the percentage of deaths (by cause) due to air pollution in Malaysia in 2019 is as follows: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – COPD (16 per cent), diabetes (15 per cent), ischemic heart disease (13 per cent), lung cancer (12 per cent), stroke (12 per cent), lower-respiratory infections (eight per cent) and neonatal (five per cent).
Hence, our daily background exposures exceed the safe standards. These yearly haze spikes for one to two months exacerbate our worsening air pollution and health.
We should focus not just on a seasonal haze problem but also on our ambient, year-round air pollution that causes health damage to our communities, especially children.
It cannot be just the government’s responsibility, it requires an all-of-society response. We need to be convinced of the enormous harm it does to our children and our health.
Key steps that we should take include:
• We need, as a nation, to declare a climate emergency. This will set the stage for all of us to invest in our future and that of our children.
• With that declaration, we need to work concertedly to transition to a resilient and low-carbon future and take actions to cut emissions. We need to build a stronger, greener economy and set meaningful carbon targets.
• We must move away from our car-centric, vehicle addiction, to one where we use green public transport with last-mile connectivity. We need to invest in complete, walkable neighbourhoods and 15-minute cities.
• We need to grow our urban green lungs and work to restore our forests.
• We need to work to prioritise health and safety for all communities. To create more resilient cities that are people-focused.
• We must work with neighbouring nations to mitigate the global climate emergency. This will help reduce transboundary air pollution.
For the short term, with the current worsening of our air pollution this week and month, it would be prudent to reduce outdoor activities, especially those that involve exertion.
Schools may need to suspend outdoor physical education classes. Wear a good fit and filtration mask outdoors and keep hydrated.
Those with a higher risk – young children, elderly or those with heart or respiratory diseases – should be vigilant.
Unless we take responsibility for our ambient, year-round air pollution and the climate emergency, we can only expect a worsening air quality and seasonal transboundary air pollution.
