Danger with every breath you take

Call it "Danger Level". Call it "Beyond Hazardous" levels. Call it what you will, the simple fact is that breathing the air in the Klang Valley is dangerous and hazardous to your health.
The haze blanketing the Klang Valley has breached the "hazardous" level along the Selangor coast, and in the Federal Territory, the air is "very unhealthy".
Today, the best places to be would have been around Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Alor Star in Kedah and Sandakan in Sabah.
But those in Tanjung Malim, Gombak, Klang, Port Klang, Petaling Jaya, Country Heights in Kajang, Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Nilai, Seremban, Malacca, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur would have breathed unhealthy air and the prospects of it clearing in the next few days are at best, hazy.
After eight years, however, the cloak of secrecy over the Department of Environment’s Air Pollutant Index (API) was lifted today, as extremely high readings (unhealthy and hazardous) in the Klang Valley and several towns in Perak, Negri Sembilan and Malacca were made known.
The Malaysian Meteorological Services Department also warned that visibility in Subang, Petaling Jaya and Sepang was less than 500 metres.
The National Security Council’s National Disaster Action Committee in the Prime Minister’s Department is on haze alert, and may declare a state of emergency should API readings continue to deteriorate.
"The Government will not declare a state of emergency as long as the API does not reach the 500 level," Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Adenan Satem said.
"If the API exceeds 500, we will declare an emergency," he told a Press conference at the Ministry of Health in Putrajaya.
The last time a state of emergency was declared due to the haze was in September 1997, but this was only confined to Sarawak.
Meanwhile, a task force set up in 1997 comprising representatives of the Department of Environment, Transport, Health, Housing and Local Government Ministries, Meteorological Department, police, armed forces and Fire and Rescue Department has been reactivated.
The Health Ministry has opened a hotline (03-88834318) for the public to lodge complaints or give feedback.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry said all schools in the Federal Territory, Klang and Kuala Selangor were ordered closed following the API reaching hazardous levels.
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