You'd think I was joking when I say this, but genuinely, I'm not.
Every Malaysian knows that the haze as been EXTREMELY bad these past week. Firstly from the fact that we can't see far beyond the building next to us, and secondly from the way your nose and throat is SCREAMING at you to stay indoors the moment you step out the door.
But for those working in corporate, sorry lah. You still need to go to work.
Anyways, as much as we Malaysians cope with the haze by making jokes about it - it's not that funny when Malaysia was actually, recently ranked the haziest city in the world at one point of time.
According to IQAir's live World Air Quality (AQI) Ranking, KL “achieved” an AQI of 211 last Wednesday morning, on 7 October. Not only does this put our air quality in the “Very Unhealthy” (AQI readings >200) category, but we also topped the list as the world's #1 most polluted city - or instead, the world's haziest city, during that morning.
Trailing in #2 and #3 behind us is Dhaka, Bangladesh, followed by Jakarta, Indonesia. Dhaka's recorded AQI was 182, 29 points behind KL - which means that the air pollution in KL is leagues ahead in front of the rest of the world!
Other than KL & Jakarta, our friendly neighbor Singapore also made an appearance at #5 with an AQI of 166, alongside Ho Chi Minh City (#8) and Hanoi (#9) in Vietnam.
Slightly missing the list, is a fellow Malaysian city from the East - Kuching ranked #11th with an AQI of 138.
So while the haze is already bad at everyone's end, perhaps it's even worse at ours - and with the haze being expected to continue until February 2027 (which is a total of 5 months!), Malaysians are adviced to keep face masks on whenever you need to step out of home, drink lots of water to stay hydrated and seek medical support whenever required.
What do you think about this news? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
C Chai (crystal.chaijeecheng@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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