Active Planet: mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday smoke

The buildings in the foreground are the headquarters of MayBank and the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia). They are less than 400 metres from the rooftop where the photo was taken.

When conditions become even worse, pilots landing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport joke that they can only confirm where they are when they are nose up to the gate so they can read the sign.

The smoke, mostly, comes from open burning in Indonesia and despite frequent requests by the Malaysian government and promises from the Indonesian government, the problem arises annually.

In some years, the intensity and the period over which KL is shrouded in smoke creates widespread sore eyes, burning noses and bronchial problems leading to some residents leaving the city. So far this year, the signs are not threatening such extensive problems.

And yet, with one good rainstorm, the air clears and the warm tropical climate that makes so many people visit and even move to Malaysia.

The prevailing winds have driven the smoke up the length of Malaysia, and also covered Singapore - although as an Island, Singapore has more wind and therefore the smoke is thinner.

For KL businesses, the smoke means reduced customer throughput: the bedrock of the KL economy, foodstalls, see business fall off dramatically.

But it also means employees who use the smoke as an excuse: absenteeism rises rapidly as workers claim that the conditions are so bad they have to remain at home. However, on one particularly memorable occasion in 2007, a man interviewed sitting at an outside coffee stall by a TV station said that the smoke was so bad he could not go to work and had to stay at home, without realising the irony of his statement.