14 Sep

Hazy shade of

…whatever season this is. We are currently experiencing a new to us phenomenon: Singapore haze. Haze is air pollution—we’ve all experienced it—and here it is made up of smoke particles blown in from Indonesia, where they are burning forests, presumably for fun and profit.

At first I pretty much ignored all the chatter about haze and air purifiers because it didn’t seem that different to normal. Every now and then I start feeling like I’ve got hayfever, so at first I figured there was just some new pollen floating around to annoy me. But in the past week it’s got much worse and then the school put the index information in the newsletter and I started seeing variations on this chart everywhere:

click to make bigger

click to make bigger

At our school if the index is over 150 the kids are kept indoors, and for over 300 school is closed. Someone told me 300 is the average index for Beijing; I’m not sure I believe them but if that is true, wow. It was at about 170 on the weekend, and you could see it. It is strange being able to see air. At the supermarket the shelves near the checkout have dust masks instead of magazines. David was supposed to do a cycling event in Indonesia but it was postponed, which I was thankful for. We were outside for about an hour on both Saturday and Sunday and when we came in my throat felt like it had chalk dust on it. Now I am back to coughing like crazy and staying inside sounds like a great idea.

We’re not the only ones having problems with our air, of course. There are sandstorms in Saudi Arabia and bushfires in California. And general crap in the air everywhere else.

Here is a widget which shows our current air quality. Pretty! Now it’s like you’re here with me. Pass the tissues, please.

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