Singapore air quality

Air quality in Singapore was rated “unhealthy” by the country’s National Environment Agency on Aug. 26, with pollution briefly peaking to “very unhealthy” levels.

The poor air quality was due to incoming smoke from forest fires illegally set to clear land for farming and cattle grazing in neighboring Indonesia. These fires are an annual occurrence during the dry season and, in addition to affecting Singapore, often cause air-quality issues in the surrounding countries of Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. 

In 2015, illegally set fires burned more than 6,000 square miles of jungle in Indonesia and created air pollution that was cited as the cause of death of 10 people in the region and blamed for making more than 500,000 people ill.