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Title: Malaysia questions Harvard study on haze
Date: 21-Sep-2016
Category: Haze
Source/Author: Channel News Asia
Description: KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's health minister Dr S Subramaniam has questioned on Wednesday (Sep 21) the Harvard study that claimed there were 6,500 premature deaths in Malaysia during the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's health minister Dr S Subramaniam has questioned on Wednesday (Sep 21) the Harvard study that claimed there were 6,500 premature deaths in Malaysia during the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis.

Commenting on the report at a news conference at the health ministry, he said the finding is probably based on some computer generated postulation, a model he said is impossible to relate to.

"An 80-year-old fellow, he's got one, blood pressure, he got two, diabetes he got three, heart problem , than he is exposed to haze and then he died so what did he die of? One, two, three or four? Or all the above or none of the above? This is hell of a difficult question to answer, how to answer it? It's not possible."

The ministry says there was no sudden jump in the number of cardiac or respiratory deaths before, during or after the haze period.

"A lot of people have died but to what extent haze contributed to it, it's very difficult to tell. You see during the haze period we see an increase in number of patients with respiratory problems but I don't think we have seen striking increase in the number of mortality."

Nevertheless the authorities will study the report, to gain a better understanding and will response accordingly, the minister added.

Malaysia's response comes after Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) issued its own on Monday.

MOH said the study which estimates there were 2,200 premature deaths in Singapore due to the 2015 haze crisis is "not reflective of the actual situation".

The study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US also said there were more than 100,000 premature deaths caused by transboundary haze from Indonesian forest fires.

MOH said such modelling studies are based on "various assumptions", and the validity of these assumptions influence the accuracy of the estimates.



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