300k Indonesians down with respiratory illnesses

2,700 kilometres away from Indonesia’s Riau province, where numerous fires are burning – on Monday said that a week-long haze affecting the city was likely due to fires in the archipelago nation.

The Thai government has launched an app called Air4ASEAN that tracks the spread of the haze from the Indonesian fires, and monitors the air quality in different countries.

Only four major banks in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have embedded environmental factors as part of their credit-decision process, the World Wildlife Fund said in a May report.

“We initiated meetings with the various parties concerned when the list of firms including APP, was named by the authorities as suspects for contributing to the haze”, Seah Kian Peng, chief executive officer of NTUC FairPrice, said in the statement.

APP, however, said it had given Singapore’s National Environment Agency information about its subsidiaries and suppliers, as requested by the agency last month. However, a spokesman for Kayung Agro Lestari said it was incorrect to refer to the company as an Australian company because only 0.01 per cent was owned by an Australian. Even though Indonesia’s law does prohibit illegal burning, the same has never been put into serious enforcement and violators are rarely brought to book.

Singapore closed primary and secondary schools because of the haze for the first time in 12 years in September.

The Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) may be just who HEAT is looking for. “Whether other companies follow suit, I think that’s for them to decide”.

“Singapore stands ready to assist Indonesia in its haze combatting and fire-fighting efforts”, MFA said.

The move by Singapore’s largest supermarket chain comes on the back of the SEC imposing a temporary restriction on the use of the “Singapore Green Label” certification for APP’s products.

In Satun’s seven districts, visible smog was present and a few residents said they could sense a burning smell in the air despite a few rainfall.

Fires set by plantation owners in Indonesia may be to blame for the smog hanging over Phnom Penh, the Ministry of the Environment said yesterday. “We have, in instances, turned down opportunities in financing companies”.

Eligible individuals visiting clinics with ailments such as asthma and conjunctivitis would not have to pay more than $$10 for treatment, and in a few cases, receive care for free.

Over 20 people representing private development body on the name of “Hatyai-Songkhla Residents Affected by Haze from Indonesia” handed over the letter to Wanney Fabiomata, the community and culture division consul at the Indonesian consulate here.

The toxic haze has now reached health-threatening levels. It added that it will address any haze-related complaints it receives.

Like neighbors who must tolerate the bad habits of the family next door, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have endured the annual problem of smoke that stings the eyes, irritates the throats and shuts down schools and airports. “But that does not mean that we want to sit and watch innocent people suffering”.