I'm not quite sure why people call it haze, when it looks and smells just like smoke to me.
Our country is currently covered in smoke. The farmers in Sumatra use a method of burning to clear the land for re-planting. They're on the east side of Sumatra, so when the wind blows, it takes it straight to the sea and out to the south of peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. This usually happens in August/September, but this year it started a few weeks ago. And this week it got awful.
Singapore (and many other countries?) use the Pollutant Standards Index to measure air quality. Apparently up until 100 it's safe. Above 100 is unhealthy/hazardous. The scale goes up to 500. The highest Singapore had ever reached before was 226 in 1997. Today at noon it was 401 (the highest). It got extremely high Wednesday night, and yesterday and today have been absolutely disgusting.
Yesterday the whole mall, which is about as far as I can go, was out of air purifiers and face masks. I asked at all stores, most had signs up that said they're out of everything related. The Ministry of Health was saying that no one should worry because there were enough in Singapore, but I couldn't find one anywhere. There was advice for pregnant women to stay indoors and wear a mask. How was I supposed to get that mask?
All suppliers I could find were already sold out of the two things I was looking for - the purifiers and masks. I don't blame them - considering 5 million people wanted them in one day. Websites were down. Can't get through on ANY phones. Yet, I am supposed to stay in the house. How are these supplies going to magically appear in my house? Today our neighbor and her daughter were over and she got a call that one store in the mall had a few purifiers. We ran over to the mall and they said that all were already reserved, but if someone didn't want it, they would let me know. They did call, and I ran back to get it, though it's not the HEPA filter we are looking for (it's HEPA technology, whatever that means) and it's literally ALL I can get. We also ordered masks to our parents' house, as we can't find a supplier which will ship to Singapore. Matt's colleague has a friend who is traveling from Hong Kong to Singapore on Monday, and she is bringing us an air purifier. This was just sorted tonight around 9pm. This is TWO days into looking for ANYTHING to help us breathe better. It is quite a helpless feeling to know that you're breathing awful stuff, and so is your almost-baby and 2 year old, and there is NOTHING you can do, other than stay in your smokey apartment, which doesn't feel healthy.
This was the view from our apartment today. Usually there are loads of people in the park, lots of cars and many more buildings and cranes visible.
Meanwhile, in the mornings the last two days, our entire house smells like smoke and it's smokey inside. My clothes smell. Today we kept the house closed except for a very few quick door openings, and we put towels under the two doors, and it seems to have made a difference. We ran air conditioners in all rooms.
Sam's school was cancelled today, so we spent the day playing kitchen and doctor (she's super into doctor lately...). She set up a hospital for a bunch of her animals and helped assess and heal all of them one by one. They were spread out on those airplane neck pillows. It was pretty funny. She made a special cabbage and strawberry smoothie for me too. Yum.
This has made me realize that I usually laugh at people who are prepped for disaster, but what would we do? We didn't go to the grocery store today and we almost ran out of food in one day! We have nearly no useful canned items and definitely no water, first aid supplies, medicines, (face masks...), etc. Should we be more prepared for disaster? Which ones? This doesn't help my trying to be less anal and paranoid...
I asked the doctor today whether or not I can travel, if I feel I need to leave Singapore. He said I could, but that the limiting factor would be the airlines. He said I could likely get out, but the farther I get (I'm almost 34 weeks), the harder it will be to return. So I might give birth where I go. Plus the stress and physical activity of traveling is more than I have experienced in the last five months, so that brings separate risks. Plus I finally trust my doctor (this took me a while, given my past experience), and I have some scary risks that could be life-threatening to me with delivery...Do I want to drop into a new country and doctor right now? I am considering Michigan, as it's the only place I would be comfortable being "stuck" for a long time, if baby is in NICU or to avoid traveling with the baby is super young. But then I would have to travel for 25 hours...plus I would be there for THREE months, which is a bit outrageous, and too quick a decision to make. Plus, I can't travel with Sam alone (I still can't lift her or anything...), so Matt would have to come with us, plus come back when the baby comes...
These photos were taken by our friend, Eric Victorson. It's the view of Marina Bay from his apartment building (right next to my office), before and during the "haze."
Unfortunately I don't understand the difference in PSI readings between 150, 350, 400...I see the words "unhealthy" and "hazardous" but what does that mean for me and my lungs or blood? What does it mean for the baby? Is what I'm breathing going into my blood and then to the baby? How bad is it? What can it affect? I don't know, and given this, it's really hard to make a confident decision about where I should be right now.
Singapore is meeting in Jakarta with Indonesia and other related parties to try to find a solution. Seems to me they can just actually enforce the law that bans these fires, but perhaps they're looking for something more creative. They say this can last until September. I don't know what we'll do if it does. This is certainly not sustainable.
Our country is currently covered in smoke. The farmers in Sumatra use a method of burning to clear the land for re-planting. They're on the east side of Sumatra, so when the wind blows, it takes it straight to the sea and out to the south of peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. This usually happens in August/September, but this year it started a few weeks ago. And this week it got awful.
Singapore (and many other countries?) use the Pollutant Standards Index to measure air quality. Apparently up until 100 it's safe. Above 100 is unhealthy/hazardous. The scale goes up to 500. The highest Singapore had ever reached before was 226 in 1997. Today at noon it was 401 (the highest). It got extremely high Wednesday night, and yesterday and today have been absolutely disgusting.
Yesterday the whole mall, which is about as far as I can go, was out of air purifiers and face masks. I asked at all stores, most had signs up that said they're out of everything related. The Ministry of Health was saying that no one should worry because there were enough in Singapore, but I couldn't find one anywhere. There was advice for pregnant women to stay indoors and wear a mask. How was I supposed to get that mask?
All suppliers I could find were already sold out of the two things I was looking for - the purifiers and masks. I don't blame them - considering 5 million people wanted them in one day. Websites were down. Can't get through on ANY phones. Yet, I am supposed to stay in the house. How are these supplies going to magically appear in my house? Today our neighbor and her daughter were over and she got a call that one store in the mall had a few purifiers. We ran over to the mall and they said that all were already reserved, but if someone didn't want it, they would let me know. They did call, and I ran back to get it, though it's not the HEPA filter we are looking for (it's HEPA technology, whatever that means) and it's literally ALL I can get. We also ordered masks to our parents' house, as we can't find a supplier which will ship to Singapore. Matt's colleague has a friend who is traveling from Hong Kong to Singapore on Monday, and she is bringing us an air purifier. This was just sorted tonight around 9pm. This is TWO days into looking for ANYTHING to help us breathe better. It is quite a helpless feeling to know that you're breathing awful stuff, and so is your almost-baby and 2 year old, and there is NOTHING you can do, other than stay in your smokey apartment, which doesn't feel healthy.
This was the view from our apartment today. Usually there are loads of people in the park, lots of cars and many more buildings and cranes visible.
Meanwhile, in the mornings the last two days, our entire house smells like smoke and it's smokey inside. My clothes smell. Today we kept the house closed except for a very few quick door openings, and we put towels under the two doors, and it seems to have made a difference. We ran air conditioners in all rooms.Sam's school was cancelled today, so we spent the day playing kitchen and doctor (she's super into doctor lately...). She set up a hospital for a bunch of her animals and helped assess and heal all of them one by one. They were spread out on those airplane neck pillows. It was pretty funny. She made a special cabbage and strawberry smoothie for me too. Yum.
This has made me realize that I usually laugh at people who are prepped for disaster, but what would we do? We didn't go to the grocery store today and we almost ran out of food in one day! We have nearly no useful canned items and definitely no water, first aid supplies, medicines, (face masks...), etc. Should we be more prepared for disaster? Which ones? This doesn't help my trying to be less anal and paranoid...
I asked the doctor today whether or not I can travel, if I feel I need to leave Singapore. He said I could, but that the limiting factor would be the airlines. He said I could likely get out, but the farther I get (I'm almost 34 weeks), the harder it will be to return. So I might give birth where I go. Plus the stress and physical activity of traveling is more than I have experienced in the last five months, so that brings separate risks. Plus I finally trust my doctor (this took me a while, given my past experience), and I have some scary risks that could be life-threatening to me with delivery...Do I want to drop into a new country and doctor right now? I am considering Michigan, as it's the only place I would be comfortable being "stuck" for a long time, if baby is in NICU or to avoid traveling with the baby is super young. But then I would have to travel for 25 hours...plus I would be there for THREE months, which is a bit outrageous, and too quick a decision to make. Plus, I can't travel with Sam alone (I still can't lift her or anything...), so Matt would have to come with us, plus come back when the baby comes...
These photos were taken by our friend, Eric Victorson. It's the view of Marina Bay from his apartment building (right next to my office), before and during the "haze."
Unfortunately I don't understand the difference in PSI readings between 150, 350, 400...I see the words "unhealthy" and "hazardous" but what does that mean for me and my lungs or blood? What does it mean for the baby? Is what I'm breathing going into my blood and then to the baby? How bad is it? What can it affect? I don't know, and given this, it's really hard to make a confident decision about where I should be right now.Singapore is meeting in Jakarta with Indonesia and other related parties to try to find a solution. Seems to me they can just actually enforce the law that bans these fires, but perhaps they're looking for something more creative. They say this can last until September. I don't know what we'll do if it does. This is certainly not sustainable.
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