Health and Psychological Effects

According to Health Hub, a web portal run by the Ministry of Health of Singapore, the key pollutant that people are affected by the haze is particulate matter. Which are extremely fine and microscopic solids and liquids that are suspended in the air. In healthy individuals, exposure to particulate matter will only result in mild irritation of the eyes, nose and throats. For people with pre-existing conditions such as a chronic heart disease or asthma, they are more sensitive to the effects and may find difficulty breathing and their existing conditions may deteriorate.

Source: PMHaze.org (Taken from Twitter post)

A meta-analysis by Kang and colleagues in 2019 corroborated this information and further uncovered negative psychological changes in mood for those affected by the haze. They noted a paper by Ho and colleagues who were investigating the effects of the 2013 haze and they found that people experienced mild psychological stress when exposed to the haze. People do tend to have more recurrent thoughts about the haze. However, it was not known whether people experienced this stress due to the physical irritation from the haze or due to the presence of the haze.

Further studies have also found an association between increased emergency department visits for those with respiratory conditions. This surge in respiratory related emergency care may place existing stress on the healthcare system. Surprisingly, the main group of people that visited the emergency department were young people, the authors of the study concluded that young people may engage in more risk taking behaviour such as going outdoors compared to the elderly and children who stayed indoors.