Recently, there was a haze situation
which was caused by the slash and burn of forest in Sumatra, Indonesia. The
smoke from the forest fire has choked the neighboring country, Singapore and
Malaysia. It had caused a huge impact on Singapore.
Extra lessons, remedial, co-curricular
activities and outdoor activities organized by the school during the June
holidays were cancelled due to the haze. Haze was measured using the Pollutant
Standards Index, PSI. The PSI reading went up to the hazardous range and all
school activities was cancelled. As the extra lessons are cancelled, when
school reopens, the teachers will have to rush the syllabus. As a result, we
students will have to stay back in school after curriculum time for extra
lessons. This will also lead to us being more tiring and stressful than before.
The health effects of the haze are
mainly caused by the irritant effects of fine dust particles on the nose,
throat, skin and eyes. People with medical problems such as asthma, chronic
lung disease and allergic skin conditions are more likely to be affected. The
haze also causes health problems such as eye inflammation, nasal irritation
that stimulates mucus production and throat irritation leads to mucus discharge
which can clog the respiratory tract. In addition, it may cause lung tissue
inflammation and scarring. Patients with lung, heart and severe asthmatic
problems may have difficulty breathing.
The haze also causes tourism in
Singapore to drop. For instance, the Singapore flyer and Seletar airport which
services charted flights were closed as precautionary safety measures. Many
other tourist attractions such as DUCKtours suspended the operations. These
caused economic damage in Singapore.
The effects of the haze are not only
what I had mentioned above. It had caused us inconvenience and affected our
lives. We should learn to take precautions if such incident would happen again.
