Statement on Singapore Haze

The Singapore Turf Club has released this statement on the current haze conditions:

The Singapore Turf Club is monitoring the haze situation closely and will decide by 3pm on Friday 2 October 2015 if Singapore races later in the evening are to be cancelled should the situation continue to deteriorate.

The International Business Times reported:

Singapore closed its schools and began handing out face masks to "vulnerable and needy" residents as the haze over the nation continued to worsen. Fires in Indonesia caused the Pollutants Standards Index, which measures air quality, to increase to 341 in nearby Singapore Friday morning -- a level that was considered dangerous, BBC reported. 

The haze was originating largely from forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan, where slash-and-burn agriculture involves wiping out large areas of land for palm oil and rubber plantations. Nearly 5,000 law enforcement officers and members of the military have been called in to help extinguish the flames, but the dry conditions have proven difficult.

As a result, parts of Singapore and Malaysia have been covered in smoke for weeks, threatening the respiratory healthy of children and senior citizens as well as everyday activities. 

The haze has sparked some political drama, too. Singapore's minister for foreign affairs and law, K Shanmugam, alleged that Indonesia has not been doing enough to fight the fires.

"The Indonesian government has said that it is taking steps to deal with the problem. We hope those steps will lead to lasting outcomes, and we are prepared with work with Indonesia on this," he wrote. "Yet at the same time, we are hearing some shocking statements made, at senior levels, from Indonesia, with a complete disregard for our people, and their own."

The air pollution could last into November. In the meantime, Singapore's National Environment Agency gave notices to four Indonesian companies that own parts of the burning land in connection with the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, which the Singaporean Parliament passed last year.