2,000 suffering from haze-related respiratory problems

JAKARTA (JP): More than 2,000 residents of the East Kalimantan cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda have suffered from respiratory problems in the last two months due to the haze resulting from reignited forest fires.

The head of the provincial office of the Ministry of Health, Awang Joenani, said yesterday that 1,863 patients reported such problems in February and 361 new patients had already been treated in the first nine days of March.

"This (high) figure has a significant correlation with the haze lingering in the two cities over the past two months," Awang was quoted by Antara as saying in the province's capital Samarinda.

He said his office had distributed 20,000 free respiratory masks, mainly to residents of Balikpapan and Samarinda to help reduce the possibility of infections of the respiratory trachea.

The number of people suffering from asthma and pneumonia has also increased "significantly" over the past two months.

In February, 198 people in the two cities were treated for worsening asthma symptoms, while 10 others have been infected with pneumonia.

In the first nine days of March another two asthma and two pneumonia cases were reported, he said.

Awang said his office had also urged people to reduce outdoor activities, especially seniors and children.

"The air now is unhealthy. But if people still have to go out, they are advised to put on masks," he said.

"Respiratory masks should be made a little wet when put on to prevent dust particles from being inhaled directly into the lungs," Awang advised.

The haze over the past two months is the result of fires that have been ravaging more than 65,000 hectares of forest and brush in East Kalimantan.

A senior Ministry of Forestry official said Wednesday that the fires in the province had caused the country's timber industry more than Rp 193 billion in losses.

Last year, fires destroyed more than 30,000 hectares of forest in the same province, leaving the timber industry with losses of more than Rp 100 billion (US$10 million).

There has so far been no total assessment of last year's losses caused by the forest fires which ravaged some 300,000 hectares of forest and brush across Sumatra and Kalimantan.

But the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), in cooperation with the Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia, has calculated the fires and haze caused more than $1.3 billion in damages to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Indonesia sustained the most loses with an estimated $1 billion, $90 million of this coming from lost tourist income, airline cancellations, and airport shutdowns.

More than 90 percent of the total losses were attributed to short-term health costs, according to WWF. (aan)