Other laws are too general. Despite the haze, few residents in the area wear face masks. Locals said the smoke was nothing to worry about. We've had this for the past few years now. You might cough a bit, but the pollution level is not serious.
Life is normal.
Many commuters waved off the municipal workers handing out surgical masks, saying they could not be bothered to use them. Fires have been raging in the jungles for weeks, and many fear that a familiar environmental disaster is about to choke the skies of Southeast Asia once more. Authorities in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore are monitoring air pollution levels and pressing Indonesia to clamp down on farmers, loggers and plantation owners who are setting the fires. Plantation owners and logging companies in Sumatra use fire as a cheap but illegal means of clearing land during the dry season, producing the massive smoke plumes. President After meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Jakarta yesterday, President Abdurrahman Wahid said his government would take all steps possible to stop the fires.