Unhealthy air quality in five areas

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The air quality in four areas in Sarawak and one in Selangor deteriorated yesterday, with the air pollutant index (API) showing unhealthy levels of over 100.
The four worst hits areas were Samarahan (121), Sri Aman (119), Kuching (117) and Bintulu (107), most of which registered increased levels in the evening although the air was already unhealthy during the 11am reading posted on the Department of Environment (DOE) website.
The worsening air quality prompted the state government, which is preparing to host this year’s National Day celebrations in Kuching, to set up an operations room to monitor the situation.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan has called on the public to stop open burning and to stay indoors.
He said he would discuss the possibility of carrying out cloud seeding with the relevant agency, although it might not be easy to find suitable clouds in the present hot weather.
Sabah registered moderate air quality and so did most of the peninsula except for Kuala Selangor where the reading climbed to 105 at 11am but dropped just slightly below the unhealthy level to 98 at 5pm.
Most northern states like Perlis, Kedah and Penang registered levels just over the bar for moderate readings towards the evening after showing good levels in the morning.
Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Port Klang, Kajang and Gombak all registered moderate levels of between 60 and 70.
Selangor DOE director Che Asmah Ibrahim said the elevated readings in Kuala Selangor was caused by the burning of padi stalks by farmers.
“Such burning is allowed and controlled and the readings are dropping so we can hope to see the air quality return to moderate or good levels soon,” she said.
The DOE conducted aerial surveillance of the areas around Kuala Selangor yesterday but found no illegal open burning.