Drainage of peatlands and deforestation have led to large-scale fires in equatorial Asia, affecting regional air quality and global concentrations of greenhouse gases. Here we used several sources of satellite data with biogeochemical and atmospheric modeling to better understand and constrain fire emissions from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea during 2000-2006. We found that average fire emissions from this region [128 +/- 51 (1sigma) Tg carbon (C) year(-1), T = 10(12)] were comparable to fossil fuel emissions. In Borneo, carbon emissions from fires were highly variable, fluxes during the moderate 2006 El Niño more than 30 times greater than those during the 2000 La Niña (and with a 2000-2006 mean of 74 +/- 33 Tg C yr(-1)). Higher rates of forest loss and larger areas of peatland becoming vulnerable to fire in drought years caused a strong nonlinear relation between drought and fire emissions in southern Borneo. Fire emissions from Sumatra showed a positive linear trend, increasing at a rate of 8 Tg C year(-2) (approximately doubling during 2000-2006). These results highlight the importance of including deforestation in future climate agreements. They also imply that land manager responses to expected shifts in tropical precipitation may critically determine the strength of climate-carbon cycle feedbacks during the 21st century.
The incident involving hydrogen release in industry has become a major concern since numerous incidents were observed to have occured over the years. This paper is designed to do the consequence modelling and analysis using PHAST Simulator for the release rate, potential fire and vulnerability to human by lethality versus probit simulated at 5 mm, 35 mm and 70 mm leak scenarios and three types of atmospheric stability at hydrogenation plant in Telok Panglima Garang. The simulation was carried out by inputting data of leak scenario, meteorological data, material data and process data related to the hydrogenation plant. The simulation results were analyzed and discussed on the discharge rate, dispersion concentration and effect of jet fire such as flame length, downwind distance and lethality for radiation intensity level of 4 kW/m2 , 12.5 kW/m2 and 37.5 kW/m2 . Based on the results, the discharge rate and radiation intensity are dependent on the leak sizes regardless of the different atmospheric conditions. However, the dispersion is dependent on both atmospheric stability and leak sizes. Lastly, the lethality and area of impact are simulated from the radiation intensity produced by the jet fire for each leak size. To conclude, adoption of PHAST software is vital for consequence modelling as this software is able to illustrate the outcomes of hazards due to loss of containment and with this will enable related personnel to respond effectively to any hazardous incidents. As a recommendation, hydrogen fixed gas detectors are proposed for installations at specific location after taking into account the smallest leak that may happen which is at 5 mm leak size.
Fire emergencies are threat to the occupants of a residential college. Some of the Malaysian residential colleges were built in the 1970s. Back then, the compliancy to Uniform Building By-law 1984 was not entirely practiced. This study aims to evaluate fire safety measures in selected residential colleges of a Malaysian University, which were built before 1984. This includes occupants’ level of awareness and knowledge of the occupants regarding fire safety measures. This study was conducted in selected residential colleges, built before 1984, which were named as A, B, C, and D Colleges. One new college building was selected to be the control variable, the E College. Survey questionnaires were given to 401 respondents to obtain information regarding the fire safety awareness and knowledge. Fire safety inspections were conducted to determine the level of fire safety protection systems in colleges and the documentation of emergency response plan were reviewed. From the study, the level of fire safety awareness among the occupants were higher compared to their fire safety knowledge. Fire safety inspection result indicated that overall buildings inspected complies with the local regulation while safety documentation reviews were satisfactorily adequate. Overall, the score for fire safety measures in all selected colleges were sufficient and in good condition. This study is significant for those in the field of safety and health practice pertaining to fire safety engineering and regulations, to plan for better and more efficient fire hazard and risk assessment.
Work shift has been shown to correlate with accident rates. Understanding of such correlation is pertinent especially among emergency response personnel since the decisions that they make determines not only the outcome of their responses but also the risks of accidents to themselves. A questionnaire data derived study used together with a semi quantitative risk analysis method was adopted to estimate the levels of accident risks between firefighters working on two work shifts. Two hundred and forty eight Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department firemen from 24 fire stations working on shifts were selected as respondents. The accident rate among firefighters in year 2006 was 52.8 %. Results showed that the Accident Risk Index (ARI) among firefighters working the 24 hours shift was higher (ARI = 3.14) compared with those in the 12 hours shift (ARI = 2.98). However, there were no significant difference in overall severity of the accidents between the two shifts (p>0.05). The difference in risk levels was attributed to the difference in the likelihood of accident occurrence.
In recent years, vegetable oil such as Palm Oil (PO) has been identified as a potential alternative dielectric insulating fluid for transformers. It is biodegradable, non-toxic and has high flash and fire points. In this paper, a study on the positive lightning impulse breakdown voltages of PO under non-uniform field is carried out. The testing was carried out using needle-plane electrodes configuration at gap distances of 25 mm and 50 mm. Rising voltage, 1 and 3 shots per step testing methods were used and 3 types of Refined Bleach and Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) and Mineral Oil (MO) were examined. It was found there is no significant effect on the breakdown voltages of all samples. The breakdown voltages of all RBDPO at 50% probability are comparable with MO. At 1% probability and gap distance of 50 mm, the breakdown voltages of all RBDPO are lower than MO.
Due to fire protection regulations, a minimum number of fire extinguishers must be available depending on the surface area of each building, industrial establishment or workplace. There is also a set of rules that establish where the fire extinguisher should be placed: always close to the points that are most likely to be affected by a fire and where they are visible and accessible for use. Fire extinguishers are pressure devices, which means that they require maintenance operations that ensure they will function properly in the case of a fire. The purpose of manual and periodic fire extinguisher checks is to verify that their labeling, installation and condition comply with the standards. Security seals, inscriptions, hose and other seals are thoroughly checked. The state of charge (weight and pressure) of the extinguisher, the bottle of propellant gas (if available), and the state of all mechanical parts (nozzle, valves, hose, etc.) are also checked. To ensure greater safety and reduce the economic costs associated with maintaining fire extinguishers, it is necessary to develop a system that allows monitoring of their status. One of the advantages of monitoring fire extinguishers is that it will be possible to understand what external factors affect them (for example, temperature or humidity) and how they do so. For this reason, this article presents a system of soft agents that monitors the state of the extinguishers, collects a history of the state of the extinguisher and environmental factors and sends notifications if any parameter is not within the range of normal values.The results rendered by the SmartFire prototype indicate that its accuracy in calculating pressure changes is equivalent to that of a specific data acquisition system (DAS). The comparative study of the two curves (SmartFire and DAS) shows that the average error between the two curves is negligible: 8% in low pressure measurements (up to 3 bar) and 0.3% in high pressure (above 3 bar).
In this paper, we analyze the spatio-temporal distribution of vegetation fires in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo in the severe El Niño year of 2015, concentrating on the distribution of fires between mineral soils and peatland areas, and between land cover types in peatland areas. The results reveal that 53% of all Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detections were recorded in peatlands that cover only 12% of the study area. However, fire occurrence in the peatland areas was highly dependent on land cover type. Pristine peat swamp forests (PSF) experienced only marginal fire activity (30 fire detections per 1000 km2) compared to deforested undeveloped peatlands (831-915 fire detections per 1000 km2). Our results also highlight the extreme fire vulnerability of the southern Sumatran and Bornean peatlands under strong El Niño conditions: 71% of all peatland hotspots were detected in the provinces of South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, which contain 29% of peatlands in the study area. Degraded PSF and all deforested peatland land cover types, including managed areas, in the two provinces were severely affected, demonstrating how difficult it is to protect even managed drained agricultural areas from unwanted fires during dry periods. Our results thereby advocate rewetting and rehabilitation as the primary management option for highly fire prone degraded undeveloped peatland areas, whenever feasible, as a means to reduce fire risk during future dry episodes.
Southeast Asia experiences frequent fires in fuel-rich tropical peatlands, leading to extreme episodes of regional haze with high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) impacting human health. In a study published recently, the first field measurements of PM2.5 emission factors for tropical peat fires showed larger emissions than from other fuel types. Here we report even higher PM2.5 emission factors, measured at newly ignited peat fires in Malaysia, suggesting that current estimates of fine particulate emissions from peat fires may be underestimated by a factor of 3 or more. In addition, we use both field and laboratory measurements of burning peat to provide the first mechanistic explanation for the high variability in PM2.5 emission factors, demonstrating that buildup of a surface ash layer causes the emissions of PM2.5 to decrease as the peat fire progresses. This finding implies that peat fires are more hazardous (in terms of aerosol emissions) when first ignited than when still burning many days later. Varying emission factors for PM2.5 also have implications for our ability to correctly model the climate and air quality impacts downwind of the peat fires. For modelers able to implement a time-varying emission factor, we recommend an emission factor for PM2.5 from newly ignited tropical peat fires of 58 g of PM2.5 per kilogram of dry fuel consumed (g/kg), reducing exponentially at a rate of 9%/day. If the age of the fire is unknown or only a single value may be used, we recommend an average value of 24 g/kg.
In this paper, ambient total suspended particulates (TSP) with a focus on humic-like substances (HULIS) are characterized based on intensive ground-based field samplings collected in Malaysia during non-haze and haze periods caused by peatland fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Furthermore, concentrations of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and carbon content of HULIS (HULIS-C) were determined, and fluorescence spectra of the HULIS samples were recorded by excitation emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy. The concentrations of WSOC and HULIS-C over the entire period ranged from 4.1 to 24 and 1.3 to 18 μgC m-3, respectively. The concentrations of WSOC and HULIS-C during the peatland fire-induced strong haze periods were over 4.3 and 6.1 times higher, respectively, than the average values recorded during the non-haze periods. Even during the light haze periods, the concentrations of WSOC and HULIS-C were significantly higher than their averages during the non-haze periods. These results indicate that peatland fires induce high concentrations of WSOC, particularly HULIS-C, in ambient TSP at receptor sites. EEM fluorescence spectra identified fulvic-like fluorophores at the highest intensity level in the EEM fluorescence spectra of the haze samples. A peak at excitation/emission (Ex/Em) ≈ (290-330)/(375-425) nm is also observed at high intensity, though this peak is normally associated with marine humic-like fluorophores. It is shown that a peak at Ex/Em ≈ (290-330)/(375-425) nm is not derived from marine sources only; furthermore, peatland fires are shown to be important contributors to HULIS around this peak.
Johor Bahru with its rapid development where pollution is an issue that needs to be considered because it has contributed to the number of asthma cases in this area. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the behaviour of asthma disease in Johor Bahru by count analysis approach namely; Poisson Integer Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (Poisson-INGARCH) and Negative Binomial INGARCH (NB-INGARCH) with identity and log link function. Intervention analysis was conducted since the outbreak in the asthma data for the period of July 2012 to July 2013. This occurs perhaps due to the extremely bad haze in Johor Bahru from Indonesian fires. The estimation of the parameter will be done by quasi-maximum likelihood estimation. Model assessment was evaluated from the Pearson residuals, cumulative periodogram, the probability integral transform (PIT) histogram, log-likelihood value, Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). Our result shows that NB-INGARCH with identity and log link function is adequate in representing the asthma data with uncorrelated Pearson residuals, higher in log likelihood, the PIT exhibits normality yet the lowest AIC and BIC. However, in terms of forecasting accuracy, NB-INGARCH with identity link function performed better with the smaller RMSE (8.54) for the sample data. Therefore, NB-INGARCH with identity link function can be applied as the prediction model for asthma disease in Johor Bahru. Ideally, this outcome can assist the Department of Health in executing counteractive action and early planning to curb asthma diseases in Johor Bahru.
Thermal performance, combustibility, and fire propagation of fly ash-metakaolin (FA-MK) blended geopolymer with the addition of aluminum triphosphate, ATP (Al(H2PO4)3), and monoaluminium phosphate, MAP (AlPO4) were evaluated in this paper. To prepare the geopolymer mix, fly ash and metakaolin with a ratio of 1:1 were added with ATP and MAP in a range of 0-3% by weight. The fire/heat resistance was evaluated by comparing the residual compressive strengths after the elevated temperature exposure. Besides, combustibility and fire propagation tests were conducted to examine the thermal performance and the applicability of the geopolymers as passive fire protection. Experimental results revealed that the blended geopolymers with 1 wt.% of ATP and MAP exhibited higher compressive strength and denser geopolymer matrix than control geopolymers. The effect of ATP and MAP addition was more obvious in unheated geopolymer and little improvement was observed for geopolymer subjected to elevated temperature. ATP and MAP at 3 wt.% did not help in enhancing the elevated-temperature performance of blended geopolymers. Even so, all blended geopolymers, regardless of the addition of ATP and MAP, were regarded as the noncombustible materials with negligible (0-0.1) fire propagation index.
Black Carbon (BC) deteriorates air quality and contributes to climate warming, yet its regionally- and seasonally-varying emission sources are poorly constrained. Here we employ natural abundance radiocarbon (14C) measurements of BC intercepted at a northern Malaysia regional receptor site, Bachok, to quantify the relative biomass vs. fossil source contributions of atmospheric BC, in a first year-round study for SE Asia (December 2015-December 2016). The annual average 14C signature suggests as large contributions from biomass burning as from fossil fuel combustion. This is similar to findings from analogous measurements at S Asian receptors sites (~50% biomass burning), while E Asia sites are dominated by fossil emission (~20% biomass burning). The 14C-based source fingerprinting of BC in the dry spring season in SE Asia signals an even more elevated biomass burning contribution (~70% or even higher), presumably from forest, shrub and agricultural fires. This is consistent with this period showing also elevated ratio of organic carbon to BC (up from ~5 to 30) and estimates of BC emissions from satellite fire data. Hence, the present study emphasizes the importance of mitigating dry season vegetation fires in SE Asia.
This study attempted to investigate the effect of kiln drying on the rate of formation of ball copra. Three samples containing fifty partially dried-coconuts were placed as a single layer in three compartmentalized blocks namely, Front: Blok-1, Middle: Block-2, and Rear: Block-3 in the copra bed of the modified-Ceylon copra kiln. From each of the three blocks, thirty coconuts were selected randomly for labeling and their fresh weights were recorded. The samples were subjected to intermittent drying in the kiln by thirty five firing cycles using charcoal dust as the fuel source. The temperature distribution pattern of the three blocks during the first six firing was monitored at three hourly intervals. The weight losses of individual coconuts in each block were measured after the completion of each firing. The results showed that, there was a significant (p
Malaysia is blessed with oil and gas resources, which form raw materials for the petrochemical industry. The petrochemical industry creates added value to this resource and is an important contributor to the national economy. The petrochemical industry however also creates hazards of which fire or explosions and chemical release are of special concern. These hazards pose a risk not only to workers but also to the surrounding population and environment. To ensure industry is prepared to cope with emergencies, a comprehensive emergency response programme is necessary. This is inline with both the Malaysian Occupational Safety and Health (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards) Regulations 1996 and the Responsible Care initiative of the chemical industry. This paper describes elements to be considered in an emergency response programme for industry such as the concept of emergency management, organisation, duties and responsibilities, emergency system, training and mutual aid plans and agreements. We shall provide related examples based on a multinational petrochemical company practice.
Evacuation profile systems in high rise building are important to determine the safety level during any fire
emergency. In relation to this, the study was conducted with its objective to develop the evacuation profile for
NIOSH Tower. Evacnet-4 software was used to develop models for building evacuations using the building network
descriptions and the initial content of the occupant at the beginning of the evacuation. The results show that it
requires 390 seconds to evacuate NIOSH tower, with the highest number of bottlenecks recorded for the Third Floor.
Identification of bottleneck is important to determine the evacuation periods. The information gained from the model
may be used for the emergency response planning and for support material. The model should be tested in real time
to have its reliability verified.
Accident in an organization is one of the most undesirable phenomenons all over the world. The consequences of accidents in workplace are numerous which include damages of resources and cost of lives of many workers. For example, in 1991 a major disaster occurred in U.S. at triangle Shirtwaist factory, which cost the life of 100 garments workers (Greenwald & Richard, 2005). In Bangladesh accidents in workplace are more frequent and devastating, for which Bangladesh has been criticized severely worldwide. Recently one of those unfortunate phenomenons in Bangladesh was fire at Nimtoli of old Dhaka which cost 117 people burnt alive in June 2010. Another accident took place in Tazreen Fashion, Dhaka in 2012 which caused at least 112 workers either burnt to death or died while trying to escape the blaze. These are the short picture of loss of lives. Yet the losses of resources are not few. Sometimes accidents create threats for human and animal kingdom also by large rate of environmental pollution. For Example, in 2005 devastating Texas City Refinery explosion cost lives of many workers as well as light hydrocarbons concentrated at ground level throughout a large surrounding area which caused long lasting environmental pollution (Baldwin & Lisa, 2008). Furthermore, economic loss cannot also be over looked. A little mistake costs huge loss in assembly line of work. Thus accidents reduce production rate, lessen the quality of product and the reputation of industry also.
The canopies and roots of seagrass, mangrove, and saltmarsh protect a legacy of buried sedimentary organic carbon from resuspension and remineralisation. This legacy's value, in terms of mitigating anthropogenic emissions of CO2, is based on total organic carbon (TOC) inventories to a depth likely to be disturbed. However, failure to subtract allochthonous recalcitrant carbon overvalues the storage service. Simply put, burial of oxidation-resistant organics formed outside of the ecosystem provides no additional protection from remineralisation. Here, we assess whether black carbon (BC), an allochthonous and recalcitrant form of organic carbon, is contributing to a significant overestimation of blue carbon stocks. To test this supposition, BC and TOC contents were measured in different types of seagrass and mangrove sediment cores across tropical and temperate regimes, with different histories of air pollution and fire together with a reanalysis of published data from a subtropical system. The results suggest current carbon stock estimates are positively biased, particularly for low-organic-content sandy seagrass environs, by 18 ± 3% (±95% confidence interval) and 43 ± 21% (±95% CI) for the temperate and tropical regions respectively. The higher BC fractions appear to originate from atmospheric deposition and substantially enrich the relatively low TOC fraction within these environs.
BACKGROUND: Observational epidemiological studies and a systematic review have consistently shown an association between maternal exposure to biomass smoke and reduced birth weight. Our aim was to further test this hypothesis.
METHODS: We analysed the data from 47,139 most recent singleton births during preceding five years of 2005-06 India Demographic Health Survey (DHS). Information about birth weight from child health card and/or mothers' recall) was analysed. Since birth weight was not recorded for nearly 60% of the reported births, maternal self-report of child's size at birth was used as a proxy. Fuel type was classified as high pollution fuels (wood, straw, animal dung, and crop residues kerosene, coal and charcoal), and low pollution fuels (electricity, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas and biogas). Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were developed using SURVEYLOGISTIC procedure in SAS system. We used three logistic regression models in which child factors, maternal factors and demographic factors were added step-by-step to the main exposure variable. Adjusted Odds Ratios (AORs) and their 95% CI were calculated. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant.
RESULTS: Child's birth weight was available for only 19,270 (41%) births; 3113 from health card and 16,157 from mothers' recall. For available data, mean birth weight was 2846.5 grams (SD = 684.6). Children born in households using high pollution fuels were 73 grams lighter than those born in households using low pollution fuels (mean birth weight 2883.8 grams versus 2810.7 grams, p < 0.001). Use of biomass fuels was associated with size at birth. Unadjusted OR was 1.41 (95% CI, 1.27 1.55). Adjusted OR after controlling for child factors was 1.41 (95% CI 1.29, 1.57). AOR after controlling for both child and maternal factors was 1.21 (95% CI 1.06, 1.32). In final model AOR was 1.07 (95% 0.94, 1.22) after controlling for child, maternal and demographic factors. Gender, birth order, mother's BMI, haemoglobin level and education were significant in all three models.
CONCLUSIONS: Use of biomass fuels is associated with child size at birth. Future studies should investigate this association using more direct methods for measurement of exposure to smoke emitted from biomass fuels and birth weight.