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SGHaze: NEA advises reduced outdoor activities that are prolonged, strenuous

SINGAPORE — The National Environment Agency (NEA) has advised residents to reduce, minimise or avoid prolonged and strenuous outdoor physical activity.

The haze as seen from National Gallery Singapore at around 1.30pm. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

The haze as seen from National Gallery Singapore at around 1.30pm. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

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SINGAPORE —  The National Environment Agency (NEA) has advised residents to reduce, minimize or avoid prolonged and strenuous outdoor physical activity.

In a health advisory issued at 2pm on Friday (Aug 26), NEA noted that with the westerly winds continuing to blow the haze in from central Sumatra, air quality is expected to remain in the high end of the “moderate” range, and may enter the low end of the “unhealthy” range.

Healthy persons are cautioned to “reduce prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion”, with the elderly, pregnant women and children group advised to “minimize” such activity. Those with chronic lung or heart disease are advised to “avoid” such outdoor physical exertion.

This replaces the earlier NEA advisory issued at noon saying that “everyone can continue with normal activities”.

Singapore woke up to the smell of smoke blanketing the island on Friday morning, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) creeping up from early morning. And it was one of the most searched-for items on Friday on Twitter and Google.

At 3pm, the overall 24-hour PSI reading was 74 to 100, in the “moderate” range. The hourly PM2.5 reading was 74 to 130, dropping from the earlier “high” to “elevated” levels.

NEA noted that hotspots are still being detected in central Sumatra from the latest satellite images. Although the number of hotspots is relatively low, hazy conditions are expected to persist with the prevailing westerly winds forecast to blow the haze directly towards Singapore.

With drier weather expected for the rest of the region, NEA will commence issuance of daily haze advisories from Friday. 

With the hourly PM2.5 readings, with respective bands and descriptors, introduced this year, NEA also advised the public to use such readings as an indicator of current air quality, and to use it to plan for immediate activities, such as going for a job.

One-hour PM2.5 concentrations of 55 micrograms per cubic metre and below are “normal”; readings of 56 to 150 are “elevated”; readings of 151 to 250 are “high”; and anything above 250 is “very high”.

But the one-hour readings are not tied to health advisories, which apply only to 24-hour PSI readings because studies on sub-daily PM2.5 exposure still do not provide a sufficient evidence base, the NEA said in June. 

The 24-hour PSI forecast will also continue to be used for major decisions such as the closure of schools.

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