As this year’s ‘haze season’ nears the conclusion of its second month, its impact has become the staple of daily news reports.

But how much is the haze costing us?

One widely quoted figure is US$9 billion (RM38.4 billion) for the entire Asean region throughout the three-month long 1997 haze season.

Another report on the 1997 haze season puts Malaysia’s losses at around RM801.9 million, or RM37 per person.

According to a Bernama report dated Oct 9, the government is in the midst of studying the economic impact of this year’s haze.

Here however, Malaysiakini aims to provide some facts and figures, in hopes of shedding some light and begin to get a sense of how large the eventual bill would be.

Healthcare

The Health Ministry officials have indicated in several media reports that complaints of haze-related health issues are on the rise, such as three unnamed clinics in Penang receiving a 50 percent increase in conjunctivitis, asthma and other respiratory complications.

More concrete figures, however, are harder to come by, so we will rely on earlier studies.

According to an academic paper published last year in the journal Environmental Pollution , the incidence of haze is associated with an increase of inpatient cases by 2.4 per 10,000 population, or 31 percent based compared to normal days.

This amounts to a loss of RM273,000 per year.

Another report, prepared by the researchers Mohd Shahwahid HO and Jamal Othman on the 1997 haze, puts the overall figure for Malaysia to be RM21 million.

The estimate includes the costs of hospitalisation, outpatient care, self-treatment, cost of avoiding illness and discomfort, loss productivity due to sick days and loss productivity due to reduced activity.

It is estimated that in 1997, Malaysians have lost a total of 21,501 work days due to haze-related illnesses, amounting to RM569,776 in lost productivity.

In that year, the haze was much worse than what it is today, such that a state of emergency was declared in Sarawak and the air pollutant index (API) was at the highest ever figure of 860.

So far, the API for this year’s haze had barely crossed the 300-mark at its worst.

Transport

The last few days have seen a spate of flight cancellations, as airports in the northern Peninsula Malaysia became engulfed in haze.

Based on a tally from past media reports, there has been at least 114 flight cancellations since the haze started in Sept, 65 of which took place this week.

This is attributed to visibility deteriorating to below one kilometre - sometimes below 500 metres - due to severe haze.

According to news report by the US broadcaster CNBC in March, the aviation consultancy firm masFlight said that the cost to an airline for cancelling a flight varies greatly.

It may cost around US$1,000 (RM4,280) per flight for a short-haul fight, or over US$40,000 (RM171,200) for those 12-hour intercontinental flights.

The firm said this while commenting on the cost of flight cancellations in the US late last year due to snow storms.

Taking the conservative assumption that all the flights cancelled due to the recent haze in Malaysia are short-haul flights however, the total losses from the cancelled flights to airlines work out to RM487,920.

Cancellations are not the only thing that would cost airlines however.

According to the US-based airline industry group Airlines for America, delays had cost American airlines US$81.18 (RM346) per aircraft, per minute, on average last year.

These costs can expected to be similar in Malaysia, as apart from wages, catering, and airport services, most of an airline’s expenses are denominated in US dollars (especially fuel and spare parts).

According to Malaysiakini ’s analysis of data on six Malaysian airports provided by the flight tracking service FlightStats.com, there has been an uptick in the percentage of delayed flights, and the amount of time of the delay in Sept.

Of the 22,286 flights in total, 20.19 percent are reported to have departed more than 15 minutes behind schedule, compared to the average of 14.53 percent in the 12 months prior.

Of these delayed flights, which number over 4,000, the average delay was 56.2 minutes. In comparison, the average in the 12 months prior was 46.1 minutes.

It is hard to attribute the 5.67 percentage points above average in the number of delayed flights, and the 10 minute increase of delays from the average, to haze alone.

But if that were the case, that amounts to a loss of RM15.8 million to airlines, for flights departing from the six airports included in the dataset.

FlightStats.com’s publically available data are for Malaysian airports in: Kota Kinabalu, Johor Bharu, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, and Miri; for the months from Sept last year to Sept this year.

The same dataset also indicates that only 97.81 percent of flights departing from these airports reached its final destination, with the rest (2.19 percent, or 488 flights) being either diverted or cancelled.

On average, 99.41 percent of flights from these airports had completed their journey in the 12 months prior.

For comparison, a more comprehensive estimate for the 1997 haze estimates a loss of RM124,232 to airports due to suspended operations, and RM325,000 in profits forgone by airlines due to the 1,800 cancelled flights (overall loss of sales by airlines due to cancelled flights was RM6.5 million).

These figures only accounts for losses incurred by airlines, and is hence far from complete.

Passenger would have to cancel or postpone prior arrangements such as hotel bookings and business meetings, or they may have to procure more creature comforts or arrange for alternative transport if they find alternative arrangements by their airline or airports to be wanting, for example.

Tourism

Figures for tourist arrivals and hotel occupancy rates during this year’s haze is not yet available.

However, an estimate by Shahwahid and Jamal puts the figure at RM318.55 million during the 1997 haze.

Tourism in Malaysia is expected to decline this year, however, with or without haze.

Tourism and Culture Minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz had reportedly said that the number of visitors are expected to fall this year because last year was a ‘Visit Malaysia’ year.

His deputy Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, meanwhile, is reported to have said that the government is working to promote local tourism in an effort to boost the tourism industry.

Fisheries

Due to poor visibility caused by haze, the Meteorology Department has advised that conditions are dangerous to ships without navigational equipment.

Based on Malaysia’s experience of the 1997 haze, such poor visibility had discouraged fishers from going out to sea, hence reducing fish landings by about 15,900 tonnes.

However, the decreased supply had the effect of increasing the price of fish, resulting in an increase of revenue by RM141,133 – at the expense of consumers.

Other losses

Crop yields can be expected to fall due to haze, as plants are deprived of the much-needed sunlight required for photosynthesis.

Similarly, the output for Malaysia’s small solar power industry would be reduced.

Agencies and individuals would also have to fork out money to buy protection from the haze – about RM1 for the false sense of security from a surgical mask; RM6 for the proper protection of a N95 respirator.

Indoor air purifiers would cost several hundred ringgit, depending on the model.

Although work continues as usual despite the haze, unlike in 1997 where an emergency is declared, schools have been closed in areas where the air quality is deemed to be too unhealthy.

Today for example, schools are closed in Penang, Perlis, and Perak, which according to the Ministry of Education affects 728,739 students in 1,600 schools.

According to United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (Unesco) data, Malaysia has a pupil-to-school ratio of 13.9 in secondary schools and 12.1 in primary schools as of 2012.

This means that today alone - assuming that half the students are in primary schools and the others are secondary schools - the work of over 56,000 teachers are not being done.