10 Facts About the Haze Simplified So that Even a 5YO Would Understand

Whoever says that Singapore doesn’t have four seasons probably haven’t lived here long enough.

Contrary to popular belief, we do have four different seasons that we either look forward to or dread each year: tax season, durian season, rainy season and of course, the dreaded haze season, which is unfortunately upon us now.

Flights have been cancelled, students have been praying for more haze to ponteng school with permission and numerous articles have been written about the haze.

But what exactly is the haze, and what’s PSI-24 and PM2.5? Why’s the haze back after three years? And why does it look like Singapore’s now the new Silent Hill even though the PSI-24 is merely 60?

Here are ten facts about the haze simplified until so easy, even a five-year-old would be able to comprehend understand.

What is the Haze?

Well, first off: simi is haze?

Known officially as the Southeast Asian haze, it’s basically a man-made problem caused by greedy people. It has affected not only Singapore and Malaysia, but several countries in the region as well.

Basically, over in Indonesia (the country that provides eleven months of fresh air to us), there are many forests. Some people there are consistently burning forests to free up lands to produce other things.

But why burn, you ask. Why not just find Captain Marvel to destroy everything with her hands, or buy a machine to do it? Or even better: get our NSFs to do it?

Because of capitalism money.

You see, it’ll cost about USD$200 (~S$275) to clear a hectare of forest with machines, but lighting it up with fire costs just about USD$5 (~S$6.88) per hectare. If you’re a greedy businessman like my unethical boss, which option would you choose?

This goes on every month, but the smoke wouldn’t have been so serious during months when rainfall is normal. Even as the smoke travels towards us on, say, March, rain would have cleared them before they chop their passport to get into Singapore.

This explains why the haze comes from September to October every year; that’s the dry season and the smoke now has a free rein to travel towards us.

But why has it been haze-free for three years?

Why’s the Haze Back

The last time we bought an N95 mask was back in 2016.

So why did the haze come back?

The fact is, it has never been gone.

Since 2015, after the major haze that led to school closures in Singapore, the authorities have ramped up efforts to stop greedy and unethical businesses from burning down forests. It even created a big hoo-ha in Singapore, when businesses and people boycotted products manufactured from companies linked to the forest fires.

However, while there have been improvements, the fires have never ended.

In fact, over in Indonesia, the haze has plagued them since July this year. Malaysia was hit since August 2019 while Brunei experienced her haze from 7 September 2019. As for us Singapore, we were first greeted with an official HAZE100 on 14 September 2019.

So, the answer to the question?

It was never gone. We were just waiting for it to come back.

Kind of like the monster from Stranger Things.

What Exactly is in the Haze?

You can find out more by taking a deep breath when the PSI is over 300, or you can continue reading this trashy article.

Our air is made of…air. If you remember your science lessons, you’d know that air is also made up of atoms and molecules, but they’re so small, you can’t see them, and you can only feel them when you’re running.

Basically, when there’s a haze, there are baddy things in the air that’s bigger than air.

The size of an oxygen particle is about 0.0000958 microns, or you can look at it as PM0.0000958. However, those baddy things are large, at at least PM2.5.

Yeah, that’s a lot larger than our air.

These can be anything, from Nitrogen Dioxide to Sulphur Dioxide.

Of course, these particles have always been in the air; it’s just that if there are more of them, our air would be more “polluted”.

And now, you’re ready for…

What is 24-hour PSI and 1-hour PM2.5?

Now, it’s easy to understand 1-hour PM2.5, right?

So basically, 1-hour PM2.5 calculates the number of particles bigger than PM2.5 in a cubic metre, which is why the unit is µg/m3.

For example, in your room that measures exactly one cubic metre, if there are 10 baddy things (BT) in your room, it would be 10 BT/m3.

In other words, the 1-hour PM2.5 shows the number of baddy things in the air in your area lah.

And since that’s accurate, why have a 24-hour PSI, and simi is 24-hour PSI?

You see, the air in your area changes very fast. If BuffLord95 comes into Yishun and takes one million deep breaths, the condition of the air would change within 13 minutes.

The 24-hour PSI is kind of based on six pollutants, combined together and averaged out to give a more logical number. Also, studies have shown that health effects would only set in after a 24-hour exposure, so it’s goody to look at the 24-hour PSI.

Of course, this also means it’s not as precise as the 1-hour PM2.5—so it’s suggested that if you intend to go jogging or whatnot, look at the 1-hour PM2.5 instead. If you’re planning to go out and is deciding on whether to bring along a mask, the 24-hour PSI is a good indicator.

Why do we not use AQI?

You’d be familiar with AQI if you read media reports from other countries.

Singapore uses PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) but several other countries use World Air Quality Index (AQI). Why are we so different? In fact, there were people complaining that the numbers are different, which has led to conspiracy theories that NEA is downplaying on the true nature of our air.

Apparently not.

NEA responded yesterday (19 September 2019), but it’s so chim, I think a five-year-old could fall asleep even if we paraphrase it with kindergarten English.

So, for simplicity’s sake, here’s why: they measure different thingy. And most importantly, remember how PSI is a 24-hour PSI, which is an average? Yeah, that’s the key: AQI focuses more on the hourly results, kind of like the 1-hour PM2.5.

Lesson from this?

Always look at 1-hour PM2.5 for immediate activities, and PSI-24 for long-term activity (e.g. Picnic…or field camp?)

What Should We Do?

Finally a point that doesn’t require me to read scholarly papers and repackage them into simple English.

I think it’s clear by now: check 1-hour PM2.5 before heading out for a jog. If it’s high in your area, you should probably jog another day.

However, even if PM2.5 in your area is good during that time, you should check the 24-hour PSI too, because health effects are based on 24-hour exposure, and it can predict if your area would be “polluted” soon. This handy guide has always been helpful:

Tap on it to see the bigger version of it.

As usual, NEA has the same advice for you:

The elderly, pregnant women and children should minimise prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion, while those with chronic lung or heart disease should avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion. Persons who are not feeling well, especially the elderly and children, and those with chronic heart or lung conditions, should seek medical attention.

What are the Authorities Doing?

Obviously, the authorities are doing everything they can so that we can breathe easy.

For a start, Indonesia’s working on overdrive to fight the fires, and have gone all out to arrest those involved in the fire. Yesterday, it was reported that 185 individuals were arrested for the forest fires.

In Malaysia, they’ve started operations on cloud-seeding and drones (wah, so high-tech now) to create rain. Over 2.6K schools in Malaysia were also closed, which affected 1.7 million students.

Over in Singapore, a hero has started a petition to speed up the Singapore Flyer, and F1 will continue.

Okay, I kid about the F1. It’ll continue, but the authorities are also doing something, which I’ll explain later.

The Correct Way to Check for Haze

You might have the nose of a dog and the eyes of a bee, but even if you smell a haze and look at one, you might still be wrong.

You see, the best indicator of haze is still by NEA, since our senses could be misled by many things. A good example would be water vapour: while it looks hazy, it might be caused by water in the air instead.

Here’s NEA clearing the air (geddit?) with a Facebook post:

The best-est way? Download the myENV app, which is an official app by NEA.

And do not download any other haze-related apps. Those unofficial ones are mostly developed back in 2015 when haze was a keyword for search engines, and therefore might not be updated and accurate now.

You Can Check Through the Entire Period of Haze From 2012

If, for some reason after reading this article, you’d like to know more about all the 24-hour PSI through the last few years, you can actually do it here.

From there, you can see how we’ve got eleven months of fresh air, and also which area has the most polluted air.

Pretty cool, I’d say.

N95 Ready

Remember what I mentioned about what the Singapore authorities are doing?

Well, for a start, schools would be closed down if PSI hits above 300.

Other than that, since we can’t just turn the Singapore Flyer faster to blow away the smog, the Government has 16 million N95 masks in their national stockpile.

In other words, people or companies cannot anyhowly just buy many N95 masks and sell them for a profit should the PSI increase.

Instead, these masks will only be released if the PSI worsens.

If you’re wondering why they’re doing this, you probably haven’t lived through the 2015 haze.

Anyways, here’s a cute cat praying that the haze would be over soon.

Because if cats can talk, they’d probably be saying, “You humans fart so much recently again?”