{"id":266,"date":"2019-08-29T16:07:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T16:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdp.tk\/?p=266"},"modified":"2020-09-25T04:10:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T04:10:02","slug":"were-unaware-that-air-pollution-is-a-silent-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdp.my\/bm\/were-unaware-that-air-pollution-is-a-silent-killer\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re unaware that air pollution is a silent killer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the past decade, Malaysia has experienced industrial growth and urbanisation, and it aims to become a developed nation by next year.<\/p>

This process benefited the economy.<\/p>

However, as a consequence, human activities emit particulates and gasses that pollute the air.<\/p>

To make things worse, the polluted air has been proven to correlate with human health, which subsequently degrades the quality of life.<\/p>

Malaysia has had its fair share of poor air quality episodes.<\/p>

Air pollution in Malaysia is unique. It is episodic, seasonal and transboundary.<\/p>

Malaysia\u2019s poor air quality was first associated with the haze in 1983, which caused severe disruptions to life.<\/p>

The main cause of haze remained untold.<\/p>

However, it was attributed to forest fires from neighbouring countries and the combustion of fossil and other fuels by industries, vehicles and households.<\/p>

Since then, haze episodes have reoccurred, with the most recent one this month.<\/p>

Air pollution is one of the main causes of climate change and has been attributed to killing eight million people worldwide annually.<\/p>

According to a Universiti Malaya study, Malaysians\u2019 perception of air quality is that \u201cit is somewhat polluted, but causes no harm\u201d.<\/p>

This perception has to change as air pollution is a silent killer that penetrates and contaminates our organs, leading to death and diseases.<\/p>

The World Health Organisation had reported that air pollution caused 6,251 deaths in Malaysia up to 2012.<\/p>

Air pollution is responsible for one out of every nine deaths in Malaysia, making it one of the top causes of death.<\/p>

The government has foreseen the importance of tackling air pollution.<\/p>

It was listed in the second and 10th Malaysia Plans. A Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) was developed in the 9th Malaysia Plan to improve air quality.<\/p>

At the 21st Technical Working Group and Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee Trans-boundary Haze Pollution meeting recently, Malaysia presented measures taken to prevent haze and open burning.<\/p>

It has updated the National Haze Action Plan and implemented the National Open Burning Action plan that is expected to reduce haze and air pollution in Southeast Asia.<\/p>

The government has put in efforts to tackle this problem.<\/p>

However, the awareness among Malaysians of its dangers is lacking.<\/p>

RESYA HANI AHMAD<\/strong><\/p>

Researcher, IRDP<\/p>

Also published at:<\/p>