KUCHING, Aug 31 — Sarawak’s air quality deteriorated today, with four areas recording hazardous Air Pollutant Index (API) readings at 9am, up from three areas yesterday.
The Environment Department’s (DOE) Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS) portal showed Sri Aman was the newest area to record a hazardous API reading.
The reading at the Serian IPD monitoring station reached a whopping 475, followed by Samarahan (334), Sri Aman (330) and Kuching (324).
Three areas have very unhealthy API readings — Sarikei (271), Sibu (219) and Mukah (214).
Unhealthy API readings were recorded in Samalaju (180), Miri (171), Miri ILP (169), Kapit (164), Bintulu (161), and Limbang (159).
An API reading of zero to 50 indicates good air quality, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 200 is unhealthy, 201 to 300 is very unhealthy, and above 300 is hazardous.
API figures are updated hourly based on data from 68 monitoring stations nationwide.
Unhealthy API readings were also recorded in 14 areas across Penang, Kedah and Perak at 10am today.
According to the APIMS portal, Kedah’s Sungai Petani recorded an API reading of 157, followed by Penang’s Seberang Jaya (155) and Seberang Prai (154), and Perak’s Minden (152) and Taiping (141).
