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COMMENT: The inequality of our haze

Construction workers labor by the side of a road in Singapore, on Friday, June 21, 2013. Singapore's smog hit its worst level, blanketing the city-state in thick, smoky haze as forest fires raged on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the nations' governments bickered over responsibility. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

The three-hour PSI is at an unhealthy level of 159 as I write this. All day the streets have been shrouded in grey smoke, a mistiness that would have been atmospheric if it hadn’t smelt of burning and made people’s eyes water.

Between the forests and the peat in the ground, the fires in Sumatra continue to burn and smoulder, which means that we’re far from done with the smog that is blanketing our city. Singapore is not the only one suffering: parts of Indonesia and Malaysia are also covered with haze of varying degrees of awfulness.

This haze is not a new problem, nor is it the fault of Indonesia alone. As an article by Jessica Cheam in The Straits Times points out, global demand for palm oil and paper products have driven deforestation and both legal and illegal burning, leading to air pollution in the region. A number of companies put under pressure to ensure that they aren’t complicit in such practices either have a presence in Singapore, or are listed on the Singapore stock exchange. Singapore therefore has a part to play in helping to sort this problem out once and for all.

Yet that is a long-term goal that does not deal with the immediate need of Singapore’s residents during this period of unhealthy to even hazardous pollution. Schools were closed as the PSI soared last Thursday night. With the smog coming and going (mostly coming) as it has been, it’s not impossible that schools might have to close again at some point. Many are already trying to work from home on the bad days, going out only when they have to, and even then with masks on. I’ve heard that air purifiers are selling out in many shops, as people try to keep their families as safe as possible from the harmful particles in the air.

Although it’s what we should be doing to protect ourselves, this is not everyone’s experience of the haze. While we stay indoors and turn the aircon on there are workers out there who cannot hide from the polluted air. These people spend most of their day out of doors, cleaning our estates and streets or working on (already dusty) construction sites and shipyards, among other things.

The Ministry of Manpower has set out haze guidelines, requiring employers to provide outdoor workers with masks and to attempt to avoid or reduce strenuous outdoor work.

“When 24-hour PSI exceeds 400, non-essential work should be deferred,” said MOM on its website. “If outdoor work is unavoidable, an N95 mask which has a protection factor (PF) of 10 may not provide these workers with sufficient respiratory protection during prolonged outdoor work. As such, respirators with higher PF, such as full face respirators with PF of 50, should be considered in such situations.”

Migrant rights group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) has gone further, urging the government to impose a mandatory Stop Work Order when the three-hour PSI exceeds 200, or when the PM2.5 reading exceeds 50 micrograms per cubic metre.

“Workers who work outdoors in the construction, marine, sanitation and landscaping industries should be given special consideration different from workers who work indoors in air-conditioned offices. Moreover, manual workers in these industries do more physically strenuous work,” their statement read.

For many among us there is little choice but to endure the haze while working. Construction workers are likely to spend all day outdoors, only to ride in the backs of pick-up trucks back to their dorms, many of which are unlikely to have air-conditioning, much less air purifiers. While many of us are able to find ways to hide from the brunt of the pollution, these outdoor workers – some of whom may be elderly or suffering from existing health conditions – are unlikely to have the same luxury.

That is why a government-led Stop Work Order is important when the situation gets bad. Outdoor workers also need to be protected from the harmful substances in the air, and to get this protection with the assurance that their wages will not be unfairly cut or withheld (particularly since many employers of construction and shipyard workers have been known to operate ‘no work, no pay’ policies).

No one is naïve enough to think that a nation-wide Stop Work Order can be casually implemented. Big projects would likely be delayed and extra expenses incurred; the economy would likely be at least temporarily affected. Yet to shy away from protecting our outdoor workers – particularly those who are doing strenuous work – simply because of economic reasons would make us as exploitative as the palm oil companies profiting from the practices that are causing the haze in the first place.