WHAT IS AQI ?

The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what
associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience
within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants
regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For each of these pollutants, EPA has established national air
quality standards to protect public health .Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that
pose the greatest threat to human health in this country.

How Does the AQI Work?

Think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air
pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality with
little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.
An AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to the national air quality standard for the pollutant, which is the level
EPA has set to protect public health. AQI values below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI
values are above 100, air quality is considered to be unhealthy-at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then
for everyone as AQI values get higher.

Understanding the AQI

The purpose of the AQI is to help you understand what local air quality means to your health. To make it easier to
understand, the AQI is divided into six categories:
Air Quality Index
(AQI) Values

Levels of Health Concern

Colors

When the AQI is in this

range:

..air quality conditions are:

...as symbolized by this

color:

0-50

Good

Green

51-100

Moderate

Yellow

101-150

Unhealthy for Sensitive

Groups

Orange

151 to 200

Unhealthy

Red

201 to 300

Very Unhealthy

Purple

301 to 500

Hazardous

Maroon

Each category corresponds to a different level of health concern. The six levels of health concern and what they
mean are:

"Good" AQI is 0 - 50. Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

"Moderate" AQI is 51 - 100. Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a
moderate health concern for a very small number of people. For example, people who are unusually
sensitive to ozone may experience respiratory symptoms.

"Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" AQI is 101 - 150. Although general public is not likely to be affected at
this AQI range, people with lung disease, older adults and children are at a greater risk from exposure to
ozone, whereas persons with heart and lung disease, older adults and children are at greater risk from
the presence of particles in the air. .

"Unhealthy" AQI is 151 - 200. Everyone may begin to experience some adverse health effects, and
members of the sensitive groups may experience more serious effects. .

"Very Unhealthy" AQI is 201 - 300. This would trigger a health alert signifying that everyone may
experience more serious health effects.

"Hazardous" AQI greater than 300. This would trigger a health warnings of emergency conditions. The
entire population is more likely to be affected.

AQI colors
EPA has assigned a specific color to each AQI category to make it easier for people to understand quickly
whether air pollution is reaching unhealthy levels in their communities. For example, the color orange means that
conditions are "unhealthy for sensitive groups," while red means that conditions may be "unhealthy for everyone,"
and so on.
Air Quality Index
Levels of Health
Concern

Numerical
Value

Meaning

Good

0 to 50

Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses

little or no risk

Moderate

51 to 100

Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there

may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of
people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

Unhealthy for
Sensitive Groups

101 to 150

Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects.

The general public is not likely to be affected.

Unhealthy

151 to 200

Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of

sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.

Very Unhealthy

201 to 300

Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population

is more likely to be affected.

Hazardous

301 to 500

Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health

effects

This page was last updated on Thursday, September 17, 2015

PUTRAJAYA: All schools in Pahang and Tanjung Malim, Perak have also been ordered to be
closed tomorrow in view of the Air Pollutants Index (API) readings for the state and district
reaching the unhealthy level. The Education Department (KPM) in a statement said the

decision was made at 4pm today following its monitoring of the haze situation in the country.
KPM said the Department of Environments website had reported that the API reading for
Jerantut in Pahang had reached 119 at 4pm while for Tanjung Malim the reading was 150. In
the morning, KPM had ordered all schools in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri
Sembilan as well as Sri Aman, Kuching and Samarahan in Sarawak closed for the same
reason. The API readings for the said areas were in the very unhealthy (201-300) or
unhealthy range (101-200 today. Pursuant to this, the department said the state and district
education offices in the areas concerned to notify the schools and parents/guardians without
delay.--Bernama
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/haze-all-schools-pahang-tanjung-malimalso-ordered-be-closed-tomorrow

API readings in Pahang within unhealthy range BY T.N.ALAGESH - 26 SEPTEMBER 2015

@ 5:53 PM KUANTAN: The haze situation in Pahang remains unchanged with two out of
three monitoring stations recording unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) today. As at 4pm the
API at Balok Baru and Indera Mahkota recorded 132 and 113 respectively compared to 130
and 118 in the morning. After recording unhealthy API of 131 at 1pm, the reading in Balok
Baru increased by one point at 3pm and remained the same an hour later while in Indera
Mahkota the reading dropped by one point every hour since 2pm. Meanwhile, Jerantut,
which recorded an unhealthy API on Friday, showed improvement when it registered 71 at
4pm today. Last week the API in Balok Baru reached 187 while Indera Mahkota recorded
157, which was the highest in Pahang since the haze enveloped the country. An API reading
between 0 and 50 is good, 51 to 100 is moderate, while 100 to 200 is classified as
unhealthy, 200 to 300 as very unhealthy and more than 300 is hazardous.
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/api-readings-pahang-within-unhealthyrange...
The Air Pollutant Index (API) readings inched up several notches from this morning until noon, with
four places recording unhealthy levels at midday, the worst being Balok Baru in Kuantan, Pahang, at
131.
Three other places with unhealthy readings are Indera Mahkota (Pahang) at 116, Kemaman
(Terengganu) at 126 and Bandaraya Melaka (Malacca) at 120.
Thirty-five areas registered moderate API readings including the entire Klang Valley, although visibility
was poor and the smell of smoke was detectable.
At noon today, Banting in Klang had an API reading of 61, while nearby Port Klang recorded a reading
of 66.
Putrajaya had an API reading of 62; Shah Alam, 58; Petaling Jaya, 63 and Cheras, 58.
Neighbouring Negri Sembilan registered an API of 67 at its industrial town of Nilai, while state capital
Seremban recorded 72.
According to the Department of Environment DoE website, an API in the 0-50 range is good, 51-100
is moderate, 100-200 is unhealthy, 200 to 300 very unhealthy and above 300, hazardous.

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks past buildings enveloped in smoke in Kuala Lumpur today.
The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, September 26, 2015.The DoE said previously that
readings could be moderate but visibility poor because API readings represented an average.

Visibility readings on the Meteorological Department website showed less than a kilometre for Petaling
Jaya from 8am till 1pm today.
Sepang, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, recorded visibility readings of 0.7km at 1pm.
Malaysia and Singapore have been battling smog resulting from land clearing fires in Indonesia for
years.
On Friday, Singapore closed schools and began distributing face masks to elderly and vulnerable
people.
Last week, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said
the signing of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Malaysia and Indonesia to tackle
the perennial problem had been postponed for the second time, because his Indonesian counterpart
was engaged with the handling of operations to put out fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. September
26, 2015.
- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/unhealthy-air-quality-in-pahangterengganu-malacca#sthash.LPKXpoAr.dpuf

JOHOR BARU - The air quality in some parts of Johor, Pahang and
Terengganu was at an unhealthy level on Friday morning (Sept 25).
As at 11.00 am, the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings in Johor state
are: Pasir Gudang (194), Larkin Lama (190) and Kota Tinggi (129).
The haze in Muar, however, has drastically reduced in the past week,
with an average API reading of 70 as of 10.00 am.
API reading from 201 to 300 is considered "very unhealthy", 101 to
200 is considered "unhealthy", 51 to 100 is considered "moderate",
while 0 to 50 is considered "good".

SEREMBAN: Haze continued to blanket Negri Sembilans skies, with all three
monitoring stations recorded unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) as at 5pm.
Nilai recorded at 179 and Port Dickson stated at 174, both saw a slightly rise
compared to 4pm, which registered at 175 and 170 respectively; while Seremban at
170.
The members of public were seen using surgical mask as the haze shows no sign of
improvement. Checks at several pharmacies here showed that masks had sold out
due to high demand.

Meanwhile in Pahang, Balok Baru, Indera Mahkota and Jerantut were on the rise,
recording 129, 113 and 119 respectively.
On Sunday, the API reading for Balok Baru, Indera Mahkota and Jerantut was
categorised as moderate at 84, 87 and 99 respectively.
An API reading between 0 and 50 is good, 51 to 100 is moderate, while 100 to 200 is
classified as unhealthy, 200 to 300 as very unhealthy and more than 300 is
hazardous.
The public could refer to the portal http://apims.doe.gov.my to find out the current API
readings.