The good news? Singapore air pollution isn’t haze. The bad news? It’s ozone smog.

The good news? Singapore air pollution isn’t haze. The bad news? It’s ozone smog.

The thick air pollution over Singapore’s this past weekend was ozone smog, the environment agency clarified today, a day after reporting pollution hot spots across the Mekong region. 

The National Environment Agency, or NEA, said Saturday’s “unhealthy” air quality was caused by increased levels of ozone, and people were wrong to link them to smoke from regional burning that it details alongside its air quality data.

“At 7pm on Saturday (Feb 27), the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) in the north region entered the unhealthy range due to heightened levels of ozone,” the agency said. It had not responded to Coconuts’ queries for comment as of publication time.

Most urban smog today occurs when chemicals from man-made sources such as auto exhaust, paint fumes, and coal factories interact to create ground level ozone. Ozone can injure the lungs and cause the eyes to burn. The environment agency measures those levels along with  so-called PM2.5 micro-particulate pollution, which can enter human organs and pose a potentially serious risk to human health.

The NEA said those pollutants were “within the normal levels” but weather was the catalyst to create the ozone pollution.

“But weather conditions such as ambient temperature, ultraviolet levels, wind speed, wind direction and rainfall can also influence the formation of ground-level ozone,” it said.

NEA on Saturday recorded the highest temperature for northern Singapore at 35.3C. That and high ultraviolet levels “could have contributed to the elevated ozone levels, reaching the unhealthy range,” it said.

Seasonally, Singapore chokes on smoke that rolls in after neighboring nations put their fields to the torch for agricultural purposes. Many were quick to pin the blame on that so-called transboundary haze for the weekend’s toxic air, in part because NEA reports air quality and regional fire conditions on the same page.

Yesterday, its map showed moderate to unhealthy levels of air pollution throughout the border-straddling Mekong area through East Asia and Southeast Asia in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

好消息？新加坡的空气污染并非薄雾笼罩。坏消息？这是臭氧烟雾。

在报道湄公河区域的污染热点后的第二天，环境机构今天澄清说，新加坡过去一个周末的浓重空气污染是臭氧烟雾。 

国家环境局（NEA）说，星期六的“不健康”空气质量是由臭氧含量增加引起的，人们错误地将其与区域燃烧产生的烟雾联系在一起，该烟雾与空气质量数据一起详细说明。

该机构说：“在星期六（2月27日）晚上7点，由于臭氧水平升高，北部地区的污染物标准指数（PSI）进入了不健康的范围。” 截至发表之时，它还没有回复Coconuts的评论请求。

今天，大多数城市烟雾发生在来自人为来源的化学物质（例如汽车尾气，油漆烟雾和煤炭工厂）相互作用而产生地面臭氧的时候。臭氧会伤害肺部并引起眼睛灼伤。环境机构测量这些水平以及所谓的PM2.5微粒污染，这些污染物会进入人体器官，并对人体健康构成潜在的严重风险。

国家环境局说，这些污染物“在正常水平之内”，但天气是造成臭氧污染的催化剂。

它说：“但是环境条件，紫外线水平，风速，风向和降雨等天气条件也会影响地面臭氧的形成。”

周六的NEA记录为新加坡北部最高温度35.3C。它说，紫外线水平高和“可能会导致臭氧水平升高，达到不健康的范围，”。

季节性地，新加坡会窒息烟雾，因为邻国将其田地放到火炬中用于农业目的后，烟雾smoke绕而来。许多人很快将责任归咎于周末有毒空气的所谓越境雾霾，部分原因是NEA在同一页上报告了空气质量和区域火灾情况。

昨天，它的地图显示了跨越边境的湄公河区域，通过缅甸，越南，柬埔寨，泰国，印度尼西亚，马来西亚和菲律宾的东亚和东南亚，空气污染程度为中度至不健康。