KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Air pollution settled at “unhealthy” levels in Rompin, Pahang this afternoon.
At 2pm today, the Department of Environment’s (DoE) website showed that Rompin has an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 177.
Air quality is also deteriorating in Banting, Selangor, with its API reading of 101.
Malaysiakini earlier reported that Rompin’s API reading peaked at 279 at 3am today, putting it into “very unhealthy” territory.
According to the Malaysian Air Pollutant Index (APIMS), values from 151 to 200 are “unhealthy” while reading from 201 to 300 signify “very unhealthy.”
Rompin’s declining air quality is suspected to be related to the sustained wildfires in the adjacent Pekan since March 11.
The DoE’s site did not state the air quality readings for Pekan.
