Hello Prof and friends!
In our previous blog posts, we talked about the causes of haze in Southeast Asia. Today, we will be talking about its disastrous impacts not only to Indonesia, but also to neighbouring countries. Flora and fauna as well as the human population are affected. As haze particles travel across long distances, it can deplete the nutrients in the soil, contribute to acid rain and many more (US EPA, OAR, 2016). For example, as seen in the figure below, animals lose their habitats and the landscape becomes an eyesore (look how vast the forest is compared to the humans in the photo) 🙁
Source: Romeo Gacad—AFP/Getty Images
https://time.com/4097657/indonesia-forest-fires-haze-pollution-environment-asean/
Aside from nature, haze drastically affects the health of humans. As mentioned in lecture, over 100,00 people (mostly in Indonesia) died/will die prematurely due to the haze in Southeast Asia between September and October 2015 (Koplitz et al., 2017). This amount is more than double the estimated excess deaths for the haze in 2006.
In Singapore, as we are not affected by the haze throughout the year, the health impacts we experience are usually short-term (Healthhub.sg, 2019). These impacts vary according to age groups and pre-existing health conditions. For example, among healthy citizens, they may only experience mild irritation but haze particles can affect the heart and lungs for those with chronic related diseases.
References
Healthhub.sg. (2019). Impact of Haze on health. [online] Available at: https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/327/impact_haze_on_health#:~:text=Haze%20particles%20can%20sometimes%20affect,haze%20and%20health%20effects%2F%20symptoms. [Accessed 16 Oct. 2020].
Koplitz, S.N., Jacob, D.J., Sulprizio, M.P., Myllyvirta, L. and Reid, C. (2017). Burden of disease from rising coal-fired power plant emissions in Southeast Asia. Environmental science & technology, 51(3), pp.1467-1476.
US EPA,OAR (2016). Health and Environmental Effects of Particulate Matter (PM) | US EPA. [online] US EPA. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm#:~:text=Environmental%20damage&text=Depending%20on%20their%20chemical%20composition,depleting%20the%20nutrients%20in%20soil [Accessed 16 Oct. 2020].