Who was that Masked Man

As we equatorial dwellers cough our guts up and mime curses at international smoke plumes, and I say mime because our throats are far to sore to utter said curses, some are reminded of dusty blighty, fog, smog and other hazy days.

June is a long way from November. Bonfire night, in dear Albion, is 5th November with memories of gunpowder plots and although escaping a rapid change in government ala Guido Fawkes today, in KL, it would seem that every night is bonfire night, and every day this month is bonfire day.

We not only have evenings, but days, of swirling mists, fog and smog enough to expect an Asian Spring-heeled Jack to pounce. And perhaps pounce he would if he were not also coughing up his lungs somewhere in a Kuala Lumpur gutter. So maybe that's a blessing in disguise.

Horror aficionados wait anxiously for John Carpenter’s The Fog to roll down Putrajaya, some with thoughts of seeing Jamie Lee Curtis, some just waiting to groove in the sheer mayhem, but alas and alack as yet it has not happened.

While going out into the city reminds me of glitzy, or painfully real, TV series set in hospitals, with nearly everyone wearing paper masks as if going to, or returning from, operations of a medical variety, I remember someone saying that a standard surgical mask is of little use against many environmental contaminants. Perhaps people prefer the psychological assurance, like one KLite, who yesterday faithfully wore his mask right up until the point that he needed to smoke a cigarette. Curious.

It is said that a surgical mask actually offers no protection against ozone, nitrous oxides and only some limited protection against fine particulates. A mask may prevent some pollen exposure, but to be effective it must be very tightly fitted and not removed. A N95 style mask may offer some protection against is dust, but not over long periods. Smog is curious enough without people hiding behind thin sheets of paper.

Back in the land of my birth, face masks were only popular during Halloween, and then only lately because they were seeing far too many American TV shows or, more recently for cyclists in the Big Smoke (London). In cities, certain masks might be deemed to be advantageous due to diesel and other noxious car fumes, if you are a cyclist, but probably not if you are a pedestrian. Even mask protected cyclists have to change their mask pads frequently, for them to remain effective.

I hope that this mask phase, and the smog, will clear soon and that Indonesian peat fires will be better controlled next year - if we all survive this pollution that is, and if Spring-heeled Jack, perhaps wearing a cheap paper face mask, doesn’t get us first.