EDITORIAL - Haze: New phenomenon, new responses

That air quality over Cebu has improved, meaning the haze from forest fires from faraway Indonesia that has enveloped Cebu the past few days has dissipated, is no reason for health and environment authorities to become complacent, even cocky. The forest fires in Indonesia continue to burn. And there is no way to control where the winds may take the resulting pollution.

In other words, the authorities must stay on their toes. The harmful haze -- at least two people have already been reported to have died in Mindanao as a result -- can always make a comeback. It can always descend again on Cebu without the slightest warning. That Cebuanos just woke up one morning last week to find the haze already upon then shows just how tricky it can get.

And let us not be too smug about it. We have all been caught by surprise. While news filtered through about how the Indonesian haze has blanketed Singapore, Malaysia, China and other places, no one in the Philippines, least of all the authorities, had the sense and foresight to imagine the winds can bring the same to our shores.

Everyone has simply been lulled into a comforting sense that Indonesia was too far away and that the usual track of the winds had been toward the northeast. Well, the winds did shift directly northward, perhaps aided in no small measure by the powerful pull of the recent storm that was Lando. But whatever the case may be, at least we now know that a relatively new phenomenon is now ready to hound us again and again when the circumstances allow.

And this brings us back to what the authorities have on hand as a means of preparation. So far, the only advisories to the public had been to prepare and wear protective face masks. The story even went a step further by narrating how prices of the masks have been affected by the demand. But surely that is not the only response expected by the public.

Considering that the likely effects of the haze will be respiratory in nature, maybe the authorities can be prodded on what they have in store in case the haze returns and lingers longer than before. Surely masks will not be enough, as indeed not everyone can have them. Even if prices are affordable, there is also the matter of supply. And so, with masks being such a fragile proposition, let us go back to the question -- what have the authorities really prepared against haze?

Are our hospitals, both public and private, ready for an influx of people affected? Beyond hospitals, are there mobile first aid stations being readied to respond at a moment's notice? As haze can entail difficulty in breathing, it is necessary to have widely available mobile first aid stations for those who cannot be taken promptly to hospitals. If the authorities have not gone to this level of preparation or planning, it is time that they should.