When Tan Dawn Wei arrived in Beijing in November 2018 to begin her role as a China correspondent, she was immediately confronted with the city’s persistent air pollution. The heavy smog and leaden skies were an unwelcome but familiar reality in the Chinese capital, especially during winter months when air quality often deteriorates. To cope, Tan invested in multiple large air purifiers and used a reusable pollution mask, relying on daily air-quality monitoring to navigate the city’s challenging environment.

Over time, she, like many others, became gradually accustomed to the smog. The infamous “Airpocalypse” of 2013, when pollution levels in Beijing soared to hazardous extremes, had already prompted significant government action to curb emissions. By the time she arrived, though the smog remained an issue, the city was seeing measurable improvements. These fluctuations in air quality shaped her experience but did not overshadow her affection for Beijing, which she came to regard as her second home.

Returning to Singapore in 2022, Tan expected to leave her pollution management routines behind. Singapore, despite its occasional haze episodes, offers generally cleaner air, allowing residents to go about their daily lives without constant concern. However, recent spikes in the island’s Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) have challenged that assumption. Faced with thickening haze and worsening air quality, Tan found herself reaching for an old anti-pollution mask and reconsidering the need for air purifiers—items she had once deemed unnecessary in her home city.

As Singaporeans experienced a resurgence of haze attributed largely to smoke from land and forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia, Tan acknowledged the disparities in how different populations cope. While she was able to send her elderly father abroad for respite and look for replacement air purifiers, others—particularly in Indonesia where the fires originate—faced the consequences more directly with limited means to avoid health risks. Efforts to purchase air purifiers locally proved difficult, as many retailers were sold out, prompting Tan to source a unit from China through an online marketplace.

The haze episodes Singapore experiences differ fundamentally from Beijing’s chronic urban smog. Beijing’s pollution largely stems from domestic sources, allowing for direct government intervention and long-term mitigation. In contrast, Singapore’s haze results from transboundary pollution, complicating efforts to manage the problem through regional cooperation and enforcement against illegal burning. Singapore has enacted laws to hold companies accountable for such fires, but the recurrence of haze underlines the difficulty of achieving sustained improvements.

Tan reflects on the contrast between tolerating pollution abroad and confronting it at home. Where she once adapted to Beijing’s environment, in Singapore the haze feels less tolerable, a disruption to daily life in a city where clean air has long been expected. Her experience highlights broader concerns about air quality as a fundamental public health issue and a basic human right. While some can mitigate exposure with technology or travel, many others have fewer options.

With a new air purifier en route to her home, Tan expresses hope that the haze will soon clear, rendering the purchase unnecessary. Yet she also contemplates the possibility of becoming resigned once again to living with poor air quality—a condition she hopes Singaporeans will not have to accept as normal in the years ahead.