(Sept 7): The air quality decreased in some areas in Johor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan today, dipping into the unhealthy level after a weekend of clear skies.

The Department of Environment's (DOE) API readings showed that Muar in Johor started to record an unhealthy level at 4am with a reading of 102, and it steadily increased to 110 as of 9am.

Malacca's Bandaraya Melaka registered an unhealthy level of 101 at 5am, and this increased to 109 as of 9am today.

Another area in Malacca, Bukit Rambai also saw a decrease in air quality, from a moderate level of 100 at 6am before breaching the unhealthy level an hour later, with the reading now at 109.

Nilai in Negri Sembilan also saw its moderate level air quality drop to 101 as of 7am today, and at 9am, it is at 106.

According to the DOE website, an API in the 0-50 range is good, 51-100 is moderate, 100-200 is unhealthy, 200 to 300 very unhealthy; and above 300, hazardous.

This morning's readings at 9am from all other 48 monitoring stations throughout the country showed good and moderate air quality levels.

Areas on the east coast of the Peninsular as well as in Sabah and Sarawak are largely untouched by the haze, which has been blamed on land-clearing activities in Sumatra.

Klang Valley, meanwhile, has seen moderate API readings since early this morning, with Putrajaya, Port Klang and Petaling Jaya recorded readings of 69, 66 and 61 at 9am today. – The Malaysian Insider