Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia

In Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, air pollution has recently been receiving priority among environmental issues. The ambient atmospheric conditions have been progressively deteriorating due to unprecedented growth in urbanization, number of motor vehicles and continuous industrial development. Monitoring data and studies on ambient air quality show that the ambient air quality of the country is clean in general but some of the air pollutants in several large cities especially in Klang Valley, the most densely populated area, are increasing with time and are not always at acceptable levels according to the national ambient air quality standards. This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to avoid the illness episodes due to air pollution. To evaluate the impact of additional information on the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents, different sub-samples were presented with contingent valuation scenarios offering different levels of information. One sub-sample was given the cause of ill-health episodes and the policy to be implemented to remedy the cause of the ill-health episodes (context version). Another sub-sample was asked to value the avoidance of episodes of ill-health, but was not given any details of the cause of the episodes nor the policy that would be implemented to remedy the cause of ill-health episodes (non-context version). The study has found that the inclusion of additional information in the presentation of scenarios in contingent valuation exercises significantly influenced WTP for the avoidance of ill-health episodes. The average mean value of WTP of the respondents for the context version was higher than that of the non-context version i.e. RM154 for the context version and RM134 for the non-context version. Since, WTP to avoid the ill-health episodes cannot be shown to be independent of the context in which it is valued, the validity of transferring benefits of avoided ill-health episodes from one country to another must be called into question and the results of the study will not allow decision makers to apply the estimated values for the avoidance of ill-health episodes in the consideration of policies with very different context

Willingness to pay for air quality improvements in Klang Valley Malaysia

This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents to improve the air quality in Klang Valley. The samples were divided according to different question formats i.e. open ended(OE), dichotomous choice(DC) and payment card(PC). The objective of this study is to investigate the convergent validity of contingent valuation estimates by comparing the WTP values of different question formats. The comparison of responses to different question formats in terms of positive response rate, valid zero, rejection of contingent market was carried out using the z-tests. Paired t-tests of equivalent means were also conducted to test the equality of the mean value of the WTP of the respondents for different question formats. The results of the study suggested that the WTP values of the respondents do not differ significantly across different question formats and the WTP values of the respondents using the DC format were the highest. However due to the nature of the question format, the mean WTP values using the DC method would normally be higher than those of OE and PC. The aggregate WTP value of the respondents was RM0.91 billion for air quality improvement in Klang Valley

Financial Anxiety, Financial advice, and E-payment use: Relationship and perceived differences between males & females of Generation Z

This study sets out to solve a couple of research problems. First, to explore the correlation between individuals' financial anxiety, financial advice, and EPS (electronic payment system use) initially. Secondly, to explore the perceived differences among males and females, and to answer whether the gender inequality still prevalent amongst generation Z in India. This study applies basic statistics, spearman correlation and Man-Whitney U test on the dataset collected through 205 questionnaires from the northern states in India. The outcomes reveal few significant correlations and also give a positive indication that the gender differences are reducing, especially among the youth belonging to generation Z. Keeping in mind policymaker's viewpoint, it is vital to fully understand financial anxiety, financial advice seeking behaviour and EPS use, for designing better social policies, to empower the upcoming generation with adequate skills and abilities to tackle financial anxiety, avail proper financial advisory services and use EPS appropriately. This paper offers insights for the stronger investigations in future. The originality of the paper lies in the chosen variables, which are not explored thoroughly yet. The present research is an initial investigation concerned with young generations' financial anxiety, financial advice and EPS usage pattern. It contributes to the existing literature and intends to attract the attention of the researchers towards the investigated relationships. However, limitations detected in self-reporting and generalisation of the outcomes in other contexts, but authors believe that they can be overcome with further and extended research. © 2020 Innovare Academics Sciences Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Benefits of air quality improvement in Klang Valley Malaysia

The study evaluated the comparative reliability of different question formats of contingent valuation method by resurvey of the same households nine months after their original survey. The test-retest correlations are statistically significant at 1% level. Comparative reliability of different question formats has been tested comparing the test-retest correlations of these methods. This test has revealed that there is no significant difference in the test-retest correlations between the different question formats for either level A (reduction of the concentration of PM10 by 10%) or level B (reduction of the concentration of PM10 by 20%) air quality improvement

Kloning Manusia

In the last few years, very rapid progress in the cloning technology and its development towards human cloning has become a hotly-debated issue. Cloning, which is the process of formation of a number of individuals with the same genetic structure, can be done by means of embryo-splitting method and nuclear transfer. Human cloning through the nuclear transfer method is directed towards two purposes, i.e. reproduction and therapy. The relatively new transgenic technology can be combined with the cloning technique to produce clones with new genes. However, pros and cons arise concerning the development of research on human cloning, particularly cloning for reproductive purposes. Therefore, there is need for a moratorium period before human cloning can be performed in order that solutions for all kinds of problems related to safety and ethics can be found

Review of air pollution and health impacts in Malaysia

In the early days of abundant resources and minimal development pressures, little attention was paid to growing environmental concerns in Malaysia. The haze episodes in Southeast Asia in 1983, 1984, 1991, 1994, and 1997 imposed threats to the environmental management of Malaysia and increased awareness of the environment. As a consequence, the government established Malaysian Air QualityGuidelines, the Air Pollution Index, and the Haze Action Plan to improve air quality. Air quality monitoring is part of t program in Malaysia. Review of air pollution in Malaysia is based on the reports of the air quality monitoring in several large cities in Malaysia, which cover air pollutants such as Carbon monoxide (CO), Sul Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM). The results of the monitoring indicate that Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO such as CO, Ox, SO2, and Pb are also observed in several big cities in Malaysia. The air pollution comes mainly from land transportation, industrial emissions, and open burning sources. Among them, land transportation contributes the most to air pollution. This paper reviews the results of the ambient air quality monitoring and studies related to air pollution and health impacts

Review of air pollution and health impacts in Malaysia

In the early days of abundant resources and minimal development pressures, little attention was paid to growing environmental concerns in Malaysia. The haze episodes in Southeast Asia in 1983, 1984, 1991, 1994, and 1997 imposed threats to the environmental management of Malaysia and increased awareness of the environment. As a consequence, the government established Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines, the Air Pollution Index, and the Haze Action Plan to improve air quality. Air quality monitoring is part of the initial strategy in the pollution prevention program in Malaysia. Review of air pollution in Malaysia is based on the reports of the air quality monitoring in several large cities in Malaysia, which cover air pollutants such as Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM). The results of the monitoring indicate that Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) are the predominant pollutants. Other pollutants such as CO, Ox, SO2, and Pb are also observed in several big cities in Malaysia. The air pollution comes mainly from land transportation, industrial emissions, and open burning sources. Among them, land transportation contributes the most to air pollution. This paper reviews the results of the ambient air quality monitoring and studies related to air pollution and health impacts

Benefits of air quality improvement in Klang Valley Malaysia

The study evaluated the comparative reliability of different question formats of contingent valuation method by resurvey of the same households nine months after their original survey. The test-retest correlations are statistically significant at 1% level. Comparative reliability of different question formats has been tested comparing the test-retest correlations of these methods. This test has revealed that there is no significant difference in the test-retest correlations between the different question formats for either level A (reduction of the concentration of PM10 by 10%) or level B (reduction of the concentration of PM10 by 20%) air quality improvement

Estimating the level of knowledge, attitude and behavior towards environmental education among postgraduate students of Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia: an exploratory analysis

Global climate change, regional air pollution, water pollution and solid waste might be some of the environmental problems caused by human behavior. Government and private environmental agencies implement techniques to reduce the environmental problems. However the human behaviors need to be changed for a sustainable development towards environment. Providing knowledge of to what extent the human behavior causes environmental problems and how does human contribute to serve the environment could be possible to change behavior. This study aimed to estimate the level of awareness, attitude and behavior of the students of Institute of Education of International Islamic University Malaysia towards environmental education. Theory of Responsible Environmental Behavior is being used. Underling factors were identified using Exploratory Factor Analysis and One-way ANOVA analysis was used to identify the affecting factors on environmental awareness, attitude and behavior of respondents. The results indicate that the level of knowledge regarding the environmental issues of the students is high. However, the attitude and behavior towards the environmental issues are poor. The results further reveal that there are no significant differences among students based on sex, the area grow up, age, and level of education towards environmental knowledge, attitude and behavior