THE LATEST UPDATE ON MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER (MCO) IMPACTS ON LOCAL AIR QUALITY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Recently, the world has suffered with the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused thousands of deaths in just a few months. Considering the sensitivity of lockdown measures, most countries, including Malaysia, have implemented ‘Movement Control Orders’ (MCOs) instead as a prevention step to reduce the deadly spread of this disease. Local and worldwide media have reported the immediate improvement of air quality due to this event. Nevertheless, the MCO effects on on-site measurements of air quality at local scales are still sparse. Here, we investigate changes in air quality during the MCO at a local urban scale using the in-house air sensor network AiRBOXSense owned by Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ). The main measured pollutants over Petaling Jaya (PJ) were carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀). In this study, the historical air pollutant data during normal days were compared with MCO days using a reference analyser and AiRBOXSense. The results showed that the levels of the measured pollutants dropped ~40 to 60% during the MCO days at most locations. Similarly, CO in Kota Damansara (KD) dropped to 48.7%, but PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ increased up to 60% and 9.7% during MCO days. Local burning activities in the residency area of KD are believed to be the main cause of the increased PM levels. This study has proven that the air pollutants level have significantly fallen due to the MCO. This air quality level information showed that the reduction of air pollutants can be achieved if traffic and industry emissions are strictly controlled.