THREE more domestic flights were cancelled on yesterday afternoon due to the haze in southern Mindanao supposedly due to forest fires in neighboring Indonesia.
In an advisory, the Manila International Airport Authority said the additional flights that were cancelled include Cebu Pacific Flights 5J 990 (General Santos-Manila), 5J 995 (Manila-General Santos), and 5J 996 (General Santos-Manila).
A total of seven flights have been cancelled so far since weekend because of the haze.
The Air quality in Gen. Santos and other parts of Region 12 has remained at safe levels despite the haze believed to have originated from the forest fires in Indonesia, in the area’s atmosphere in the last two weeks.
Maysheen Collong, information officer of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in Region 12, said their monitoring showed that the pollutants, especially the particulate matters, in the air in key cities in the region are still below the standard level.
She said data generated on Wednesday by their ambient air monitoring systems installed here and in Koronadal City indicated that the fine particles in the atmosphere with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or particulate matter (PM) 2.5 remains under the standard 75 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m3).
Collong explained that PM2.5 refers to pollutants that are “thinner than hair strands and smaller than sand grains” that could pose adverse effects to human health when breathed.
She said this city posted a PM2.5 result of 50.50 mg/m3 while Koronadal City generated 62.62 mg/m3.
“This means that the air pollutants present in our atmosphere are so far are at tolerable level and should not be a cause for worry or alarm,” she said.
Weather observers at the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) initially monitored the presence of haze, which is a mixture of dust and smoke, two weeks ago.
Dante Arriola, a Pagasa senior weather observer, said their assessment showed that it could have come from the raging forest fires in parts of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Several days after it appeared, he said the haze thinned out and dissipated but returned last weekend.
The City Health Office reported a rise in cases of respiratoryelated diseases among local residents since the presence of haze was first monitored.
But citing results of their air quality monitoring, Collong said the rise in respiratory diseases could not be due to the haze.
She said could not also make any conclusion as of the moment whether the monitored haze really came from the forest fires in Indonesia.
“The prevailing wind patterns in the region is not from Indonesia so it’s still a big question mark. Right now we’re studying all possible situations, including observations that the foggy or hazy atmosphere was actually caused by low cloud formations,” she said.
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