Air quality worsens in Singapore
But poor weather fails to dampen mood for F1 night race
Air quality readings in the city-state reached the ‘unhealthy’ range yesterday, leading to hazy skies. At 3pm, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index for all regions was over 100, with the south recording the highest at 118.
SINGAPORE: The air quality readings in the Republic has reached the “unhealthy” range leading to hazy skies.
But it did not matter as the Singapore F1 Grand Prix race was staged without any difficulties at the Marina Bay Street Circuit last night.
The race, the biggest sporting event in Singapore, featured all the top racing names including Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing).
As at 3pm yesterday, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) for all regions was over 100, with the south recording the highest figure at 118, and the north the lowest at 103.
In the morning, readings for the four regions were under 100, except the south, where the F1 race was held, which was at 105.
A PSI reading of zero to 50 indicates good air quality while a reading of 51 to 100 is in the moderate range.
A reading of 101 to 200 is considered unhealthy.
The air quality is considered “very unhealthy” when the PSI ranges from 201 to 300, and “hazardous” when the PSI reading is more than 300.
The worsening air quality was thought to be a concern for those planning to watch the F1 race last night.
But organisers said they had a contingency plan if the haze worsened and had stocked up on face masks to protect against pollution which spectators can buy at the circuit.
Ticket sales for the event has been brisk. Last year’s race drew more than 263,000 fans – the second-highest attendance after the 300,000 at the inaugural race in 2008 – and similar-size crowds were seen throughout the three-day race.
In the south, the one-hour PM2.5 concentration reading was in the “elevated” range of 97 at 3pm – lower than the 101 at 8am.
The one-hour PM2.5 concentration, which the National Environment Agency said is a better indicator of current air quality, measures the average hourly concentration of PM2.5 particles – the dominant pollutant during haze episodes– and is meant to help people gauge immediate activities, such as whether they should go for a jog.
There are four bands on the PM2.5 concentration scale: 0 to 55 for normal, 56 to 150 for elevated, 151 to 250 for high, and very high for any higher readings.
Online chatter compared the situation yesterday to previous days.
Twitter user @JLMH_ said the haze is “pretty bad today” while user @xyrael felt “today’s haze is the worst since Thursday”.
User @yoonsy asked what the contingency plan for F1 was, given that the “haze is back”.
But despite dampening weather conditions, there was good news yesterday as Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced that it had extended the title sponsorship of the event for another two years to 2021.
SIA signed on as the Singapore race’s title sponsor in 2014, and has since renewed the deal biennially.
SIA’s deal for the first two years was believed to be worth between S$10mil (RM30mil) and S$15mil (RM45mil) annually, and reported at S$10mil (RM30mil) a year for the next two years.
The value of the 2018-2019 contract and the current new one is not known. — The Straits Times/ANN