A PKR parliamentarian has slammed the government for watering down the readings of haze levels in the country using a lower standard, which puts the public at greater risk due to complacency.
PKR Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said he was tipped off to an issue with the government’s Air Pollutant Index (API) readings when comparing Singapore’s higher readings with Johor Baru’s.
“After verification with several news sources and academic papers, it appears that the main source of the big discrepancy in measurements between Malaysia and Singapore, is that the BN government is using a lower standard of API measurement,” said Wong in a statement today.
“Most countries, including Singapore and Indonesia now measure particulate matter of 2.5 microns or PM2.5.
“Malaysia is still measuring particulate matter of 10 microns or PM10.
“This practice results in overall and substantially lower measurements in Malaysia,” he said.
“This in turn creates a more positive but ultimately illusory picture of the state of our nation’s air quality.
"The greater travesty in this action is that the BN government has completely failed to take into account the greater health dangers posed by the smaller air particles of PM2.5, which may lodge in your lungs and enter the bloodstream,” said Wong.
DOE already has the data
Urging the government to start publishing PM2.5 data in accordance with regular standards of many countries, Wong pointed out how the data was already currently available in Department of Environment (DOE) stations in Putrajaya, Banting, Cheras, Langkawi and Kuching.
“(The data) must be released on an hourly basis starting from now,” he stressed.
Wong also revealed that the matter was not new and was raised in a report in The Star back in 2012.
In the said report, the DOE had said that PM2.5 will only be implemented four years later, by 2016, said Wong.
Meanwhile, Wong asked Pakatan Harapan governments in Penang and Selangor to immediately set up PM2.5 measurement facilities as an alternative to the DOE and produce its own hourly reports.
“Please note that I am not advocating a public health scare.
“But the basic principle here is that the public must first be fully informed on the air quality, so that they can then choose to mitigate their own risks when pursuing activities outdoors.
“The act of whitewashing the haze will not with any certainty, improve economic or tourist numbers but it will, with certainty, exact a heavy healthcare and human costs on the uninformed public,” he said.
The resurgence of the haze scourge after a brief respite last week continued to cloak Klang Valley in unhealthy levels in the 201 to 300 API this morning.
Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Sarawak continued to suffer unhealthy readings while Johor levels have dropped back to moderate levels.
An API reading of 0 to 50 indicates good air quality; 51 to 100, moderate; 101 to 200, unhealthy; 201 to 300, very unhealthy and 300 and above, hazardous.
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