Sumatran Haze Reduces Malaysian Visibility By 80%

[hatrack]

KUALA LUMPUR - Smoke from fires set to clear land in Indonesia has shrouded much of neighbouring Malaysia in haze, causing a marked drop in air quality, news reports and officials said on Thursday.

Visibility in several parts of the country had been reduced to as low as two kilometres from the normal 10km, a meteorological department official told The Associated Press on customary condition of anonymity.

Air quality in most parts of the country had dipped from 'good' to 'moderate', The Star daily cited Ms Rosnani Ibrahim, the environment ministry's director-general, as saying. Moderate is the second-best level in five tiers of air-quality ratings from good to dangerous. 'The drop in air quality is caused by particulate matter blowing in from the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan,' she told the daily. She was not immediately available for comment.

In June, smoke from wildfires in Indonesia is drifted across neighbouring Malaysia, shrouding Kuala Lumpur and the northern island resort of Penang in thick haze and sending air quality plummeting to the third-tier 'unhealth' level for several days."

EDIT

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/latest/story/0,4390,266673,00.html