Sains Malaysiana 41(2)(2012): 179–191

Urban Air Environmental Health Indicators for Kuala Lumpur City

(Indikator Kesihatan Persekitaran Udara Bandar untuk Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur)

Oliver Ling Hoon Leh¹*, Shaharuddin Ahmad², Kadaruddin Aiyub²,  Yaakob Mohd Jani²

& Ting Kien Hwa¹

¹Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying (FSPU), Universiti Teknologi MARA

 (UiTM) 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

²Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanaities

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 Bangi, Selangor, D.E., Malaysia

Received: 27 April 2011 / Accepted: 22 July 2011

ABSTRACT

Air environmental health indicators were defined operationally as a combination of “air quality” and “air-related health” indicators. Clean air is a basic precondition of human health. Air pollutants had been identified with potential negative impact on health especially on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, studies are necessary to identify and understand the state of environmental health. This study was aimed to examine and analyse the air environmental health condition in city of Kuala Lumpur by using a set of indicators. House to house questionnaire survey was carried out to collect air-related health data, and air quality sampling was carried out to identify ambient air quality level of the city. In general, city of Kuala Lumpur was found to have a “moderate level” of air quality. Air-related illnesses indicated by acute respiratory infection and asthma were found to be higher in more developed or higher density zones, as compared to other zones. Besides, air-related illnesses were significantly correlated to respondents’ exposure to air pollution. The findings imply that human health can be improved by managing the urban development and its environmental quality properly.

Keywords: air quality; air-related health; city; indicators

ABSTRAK

Indikator kesihatan persekitaran udara didefinisikan secara operasi sebagai satu pergabungan indikator “kualiti udara” dan “kesihatan berkaitan dengan udara”. Pencemar-pencemar udara telah dikenal pasti dengan kesan negatif ke atas kesihatan terutamanya penyakit-penyakit pernafasan dan kardiovaskular. Oleh itu, kajian perlu dilakukan untuk mengenal pasti dan memahami keadaan kesihatan persekitaran. Kajian ini telah dijalankan untuk memeriksa dan menganalisis keadaan kesihatan persekitaran udara bagi bandaraya Kuala Lumpur dengan menggunakan satu set indikator. Kajian soal-selidik dari rumah ke rumah telah dilakukan untuk mengumpul data kesihatan berkaitan udara, dan persampelan kualiti udara telah dilakukan untuk mengenal pasti kualiti udara ambien bandaraya tersebut. Secara amnya, bandaraya Kuala Lumpur dikenal pasti dengan kualiti udara pada tahap “sederhana”. Penyakit berkaitan udara yang diukur dengan indikator jangkitan pernafasan akut dan asthma telah dikenal pasti lebih tinggi di zon-zon yang lebih membangun atau berketumpatan tinggi jika berbanding dengan zon-zon lain. Di samping itu, penyakit berkaitan udara adalah mempunyai korelasi berketumpatan yang ketara dengan perdedahan responden kepada pencemaran udara. Penemuan kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa kesihatan manusia dapat dipertingkatkan dengan pengurusan pembangunan bandar dan kualiti persekitaranya dengan baik.

Kata kunci: Bandaraya; kesihatan berkaitan dengan udara; kualiti udara; indicator

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*Corresponding author; email: oli761@yahoo.com