As parents working at The Safety Educator we have been shocked and heart broken over the devastating man made fires ravaging Indonesia over the last six weeks. Not only are the fires destroying pristine rain forest for palm oil plantations they are causing air pollution (also called haze, smog, etc) in the ASEAN region (October 2015), particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. As per our recent article on Living with Air Pollution, one of the most essential measurements of air quality is PM2.5 (solid particles in the air smaller than 2.5 microns), unfortunately the following countries do not yet measure this important safety data to it’s citizens – Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei. As The Safety Educator is partly based in Kuala Lumpur we decided to investigate ways in which we could measure and provide our own PM2.5 measurements to the population, similar to what the US Embassy did in Beijing. This will give concerned citizens a more accurate representation of the quality of the air at any given time.
So The Safety Educator has purchased and installed two PM2.5 monitors, one outdoors, and one indoors (with a True-HEPA Air Purifier operational). We have setup a permanent AQI page on our site where this data can be accessed by anyone at any time, the page also provides a detailed description on:
- The type of sensor in use.
- The installation and operation method.
- How the Air Quality Index (AQI) is calculated and what it actually means.
We believe that this is an important service to the Malaysian public. The Malaysian government has publicly stated that PM2.5 monitoring will be available within two years, however The Safety Educator wants to ensure that reliable data is available now. If you have any recommendations or requests please drop us a line – we would love to hear from you!
Kuala Lumpur Air Quality Index
Sam has over a decade of experience in the design and operation of complex processing plants, he provides a strong technical background to the site in relation to safe equipment design and operation. Sam, a father of two children, has a B.Eng. (Chem) (Hons) and a Master of Business and Technology from Australia.
