The Haze Part II

And purple use to be my favorite color! In this case though it means the air quality is in the dangerous zone. This is from the city 5-hours away. Farther south it is above 2000. 

A video from the southern part of our island:

. . . . . TABRAKAN BERUNTUN DI BASARANG KAPUAS . . . KARENA JARAK PANDANG BEGINI . . . KADANG HARUS BERHENTI . . . KARENA JARAK PANDANG KURANG DARI 1 METER . . . DI_AMBIL JAM 06.10 WIB . . .
Posted by Marcos Tuwan on Sunday, October 18, 2015

Not only is the haze dangerous to drive in, it is dangerous and even deadly to breathe in, especially for such a long time. The Indonesian government estimates that 325,000 people have become sick with respiratory illnesses like asthma and pneumonia from the haze. And that statistic is over a week old now and only counts those who have been seen at government health facilities. They also estimate that around 3% of those people have died. That may not sound like many until you do the the math. That is almost 10,000 people killed. And I see the effects through my Facebook feed almost every day. It is customary here to take pictures of the bodies of family and friends who have died, so I will be scrolling through my feed catching up on news from friends and then suddenly there is a picture of a dead body, very frequently a child or baby. Their smaller airways and lungs are not as able to handle the haze.

Check out this BBC video on the health effects of the haze, especially on children.

Help is on the way though as Indonesia has finally accepted help from places like Singapore and Australia who are lending manpower and airpower to help fight these fires. Unfortunately, all of that help seems to be going to the island of Sumatra instead of Kalimantan. There are more hot spots there and it is closer to Jakarta, Singapore, and Malaysia making it the more visible problem. The air quality however has been worse in Kalimantan, especially Central Kalimantan. As I write this it has passed 2000 psi again in the city of Palangkaraya (I am not sure how far past because the gauge stops working at 2000).

Please continue praying for rain, that wise decisions will be made by the government of Indonesia as to where their resources should be allocated and how to best punish those involved in starting the fires. At this point I am needing to use inhalers frequently to keep my asthma under control, so I am thinking about relocating to another island in Indonesia for awhile to give my lungs a break.