Report: Malaysia Not to Release Pollution Levels to Public
8/5/99
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Title: Report: Malaysia Not to Release Pollution Levels to Public
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 5, 1999
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- To avoid scaring away tourists,
Malaysia will not release air pollution levels despite a return of
the haze caused by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia, a newspaper
reported Thursday.
Mild haze has blanketed Kuala Lumpur this week as winds blew in smoke
from Borneo and Sumatra. But the environment ministry has declined to
release the Air Pollution Index, as it had done in 1997 and 1998.
"There is nothing alarming," Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding was
quoted as saying by Thursday's Star newspaper. Publicizing the
pollution index could "drive away tourists," he said.
He said the haze was spreading but the index remained below 100. An
API above 100 is considered dangerous.
Kuala Lumpur's meteorological office said pollution figures could be
given out only by the department of environment, but no official
there was available for comment.
The haze badly hurt Malaysia's tourism industry in 1997, with the
number of visitors falling by 13 percent to 6.2 million, compared
with 7.1 million in 1996.
Malaysia hopes to attract 7 million tourists this year, but the
lingering haze just ahead of high season could scare people off to
other Asian destinations.
Smoke from the annual dry-season fires has begun to choke shipping
traffic through the busy Malacca Straits, which separates Singapore
and Malaysia from Indonesia.
Weather officials in Indonesia's worst-hit Riau Province said
Thursday visibility in the air ranged between 500 and 800 meters
(1,650 to 2,640 feet) and between 100 and 200 meters in the ground.
Flights to Riau's capital were diverted, and residents in many areas
were advised to stay indoors as much as possible and wear masks
outdoors.
A leading Indonesian environmental group blamed timber industries for
starting new fires which were clouding the region.
"People have continued to conduct land clearing with burning method
because it is cheap and fast," said Longgena Ginting, forestry
program coordinator for the environmental group, Walhi.
Walhi, which based its finding on satellite data and surveys by field
workers, said at least 441 separate fires were burning on Sumatra and
Borneo. For four months in 1997, severe smog brought about by forest
fires in Indonesia enveloped Southeast Asia, closing down airports
and schools and causing thousands of people to seek treatment for
respiratory disorders.
It subsided last year as the El Nino weather pattern -- which caused
unusually dry conditions that exacerbated the spread of annual forest
fires -- eased up.