Asia struggles to stop relentless "pollution calendar"

By Gillian Murdoch

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Take one last look at the government pollution Web site to check the air toxicity outside, then grab your keys and go.

This is the "haze routine" Singaporeans may dust off this summer if Indonesia's annual forest fires again smother the island in noxious yellow smoke.

"You just click refresh", said Yu Mei Balasingamchow, who checked a government pollution web page before leaving her house every day last year as the pollution index rocketed to levels so unhealthy the government advised children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems to stay indoors.

Every May to October, southwest monsoon winds blow sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter-laced smoke from Indonesia over down-wind neighbours Singapore and Malaysia.

It's a cross-border pollution bombardment that Southeast Asians have learnt to endure, as have millions of others in Asia where governments are struggling to stop their neighbours' annual dust storms, smoke haze and industrial air pollution.

HAVE SMOG, WILL TRAVEL

From March through May, Koreans periodically don cotton face masks, swap contact lenses for glasses and seal up their windows as spring sandstorms from the Gobi Desert sweep through Beijing to redden the air across North and South Korea to Japan.

From November through March, north Asia masks up during the annual air pollution surge that comes as China fires up coal-burning power plants to supply winter heating.