Haze: Only one location in Malaysia with unhealthy API reading as at 8pm on first day of Raya

PETALING JAYA: Air quality readings improved across Malaysia as at 8pm Saturday (April 22), with only one location recording unhealthy levels.

Data from the Air Pollutant Index of Malaysia (APIMS) website shows that Petaling Jaya is the only location to record an unhealthy air quality reading with the Air Pollutant Index (API) at 111.

At 7am, the API reading for Petaling Jaya showed an unhealthy level of 108 rising to a high of 120 at 5pm Saturday before dropping to 111 at 8pm.

Meanwhile, five locations in the country recorded a good API reading of below 50 as at 8pm Saturday. These locations are Tanjung Malim in Perak (45), Pengerang (47)in Johor, Sandakan (34) and Kimanis (42) in Sabah and Kapit (47) and Sarikei (46) in Sarawak.

All other monitoring stations in the country reported moderate API readings from 51 to 100.

The air quality in a location is deemed unhealthy if its API reading is between 101-200 and very unhealthy at 201-300.

Four areas that recorded good air quality so far are Tanjung Malim (with an API reading of 47) in Perak, Kapit (43) and Sarikei (45) in Sarawak and Sandakan (41) in Sabah.

The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry previously announced that it would monitor the current situation and take appropriate measures to deal with any possible consequences of the haze.