Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, was listed at ISPU 1,300 on PM2.5 at 7.57am WIB on 14 October 2026, more than four times the 300 line Indonesia calls hazardous (Metro TV, 2026). IQAir read US AQI 396 and 273 µg/m³ at 4am (Kompas, 2026). On a day like this the safest ride is the one you skip.
In Palangka Raya, the school run is still a screen. Classes remain remote, and the local health office counts 10,400 acute respiratory infection cases (Kompas, 2026).
Key takeaways
- Palangka Raya was third on the national list of 15 areas rated very unhealthy or hazardous on the morning of 14 October 2026 (Metro TV, 2026).
- IQAir's 273 µg/m³ of PM2.5 at 4am is about 18 times the WHO 24-hour guideline of 15 (Kompas, 2026; WHO, 2021).
- In rural Central Kalimantan homes, indoor PM2.5 matched outdoor PM2.5 (median ratio 1.01), so staying in is only a partial shield (Graham et al., 2024).
- Estimated fire PM2.5 from the 2019 season caused over 1,200 excess deaths in the Palangka Raya region (Grosvenor et al., 2024).
What the monitors and studies actually measured
Two different numbers describe the same smoke. The national ISPU portal lists 1,300. IQAir's US-scale AQI reads 396. The scales differ, so compare the category: both say hazardous.
Researchers have measured this air before. Santoso and colleagues collected PM2.5, PM10 and black carbon in Palangka Raya from 2011 to 2020. In the 2015 fire episode, PM2.5 reached nearly 400 µg/m³, PM10 nearly 800, and visibility dropped below 0.2 miles. Without fires, the city sat below the national standard (Santoso et al., 2022).
Graham and colleagues placed 13 low-cost sensors across Central Kalimantan in 2023. Over the dry season, outdoor PM2.5 averaged 136 µg/m³, and fires added 90 of that (Graham et al., 2024).
Today's 273 sits between that season average and the 2015 peak. The sources used different instruments, so read the shape, not the decimals.
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Staying indoors only helps a little
Graham's team measured the inside of homes too. In rural areas the median indoor to outdoor ratio was 1.01. Local housing gave almost no protection from fire smoke (Graham et al., 2024).
A second study monitored low-income homes in Palangka Raya during the 2019 fires. Buildings only partly shielded people from the smoke (Ardiyani et al., 2023).
That matters for riders. If a closed room cannot keep this smoke out, a helmet visor will not either. The real choice is whether you need to be on the road at all.
Your ride adds to the station reading
PM2.5 breathed by motorcycle commuters in Taipei, the highest of four commuting modes on the same routes.
Source: Tsai et al., Science of the Total Environment, 2008That Taipei study was not a haze event. Riders still breathed the most of any commuter, with the shortest trips. Open air and queued traffic exhaust are the likely reasons (Tsai et al., 2008).
The health bill from this kind of smoke is documented. Grosvenor's team used low-cost sensors around Palangka Raya in 2019. They estimated more than 1,200 excess deaths in the Palangka Raya region, over 3,200 across Central Kalimantan and more than 87,000 nationwide (Grosvenor et al., 2024).
Clinic data point the same way. In Pulang Pisau Regency, respiratory clinic visits rose 36.6% on haze days and 74.4% on fire-haze days. The wider picture across the province was less clear (Phung et al., 2025).
Check the live reading right before you leave, and again before the ride home. Smoke days can change hour to hour.
What to do on your ride this week
- Skip the ride if you can. The national guidance for these levels is to avoid all outdoor activity (Metro TV, 2026).
- If you must go, wear an N95 or KN95 and seat it every time. The same guidance names these masks. A loose edge wastes the filter.
- Do not count on the house. Keep windows shut, but expect the indoor air to stay smoky.
- Take the route with fewer lights. Queued exhaust sits on top of the haze.
- For filtered air that does not depend on mask fit, look at an active HEPA helmet system.
For the bigger picture, see when the haze will be gone and the live haze map for riders.
Frequently asked questions
How bad is the air in Palangka Raya today?
On the morning of 14 October 2026, the national ISPU portal listed hazardous air, and IQAir read US AQI 396 (Metro TV, 2026; Kompas, 2026). Check the live portal for the current hour.
Why is the ISPU number so high?
The portal listed 1,300 for PM2.5, far above the 300 hazardous line. ISPU and the US AQI use different scales, so compare the category, not the digits.
Is the haze here from peat fires?
Peat fires are the long-documented source in this region. A 2014 analysis of Palangka Raya highlighted peat fires as a major contributor to the region's air pollution (Hayasaka et al., 2014).
The research behind this: 6 studies
Peer reviewed work this post is built on. Each card says what was measured, what was found, and what it cannot tell you.
Air quality and visibility in Palangka Raya
- What they measured
- PM2.5, PM10 and black carbon collected in Palangka Raya from October 2011 to October 2020.
- What they found
- In the 2015 fire episode PM2.5 reached nearly 400 µg/m³ and visibility fell below 0.2 miles.
- What it can't tell you
- It describes the 2015 episode and a long average, so it cannot say how 2026 compares hour by hour.
Low-cost sensors and smoke exposure in Central Kalimantan
- What they measured
- 13 low-cost PM2.5 sensors, indoors and outdoors, across urban and rural Central Kalimantan in the 2023 dry season.
- What they found
- Outdoor PM2.5 averaged 136 µg/m³, 90 of it from fires, and the rural indoor to outdoor ratio was 1.01.
- What it can't tell you
- The sensors are low cost, and the rural ratio may differ from city homes.
Impact of the extreme 2019 peatland fires
- What they measured
- A low-cost sensor network around Palangka Raya in the 2019 fire season, checked against the Copernicus air quality model.
- What they found
- Estimated over 1,200 excess deaths in the Palangka Raya region and over 87,000 nationwide from fire PM2.5 in 2019.
- What it can't tell you
- The deaths are modelled estimates, not counted cases.
Wildfire smoke inside Palangka Raya homes
- What they measured
- 24-hour indoor and outdoor PM2.5 in low-income homes in Palangka Raya, plus personal monitors on 170 pregnant women, in 2019.
- What they found
- Buildings only partly protected people from wildfire smoke.
- What it can't tell you
- Few homes were monitored, so it is a snapshot, not a city average.
Smoke haze and respiratory clinic visits
- What they measured
- Daily respiratory visits at primary health centres in Central Kalimantan, 2015 to 2019, on haze and non-haze days.
- What they found
- In Pulang Pisau Regency, risk rose 36.6% on haze days and 74.4% on fire-haze days.
- What it can't tell you
- The authors call the province-wide effect inconclusive, and clinic visits are not exposure.
Peat-fire air pollution in Central Kalimantan
- What they measured
- PM10 and gas pollutants at Palangkaraya from 2001 to 2010, matched to satellite fire and weather data.
- What they found
- The longest hazardous episode ran about 80 days in 2002, and peat fires were a major contributor to the pollution.
- What it can't tell you
- It ends in 2010 and tracks PM10, so it says little about today's PM2.5.
Commuter PM exposure by transport mode
- What they measured
- Commuters' PM exposure on the same routes in Taipei by motorcycle, car, bus and metro.
- What they found
- Motorcyclists had the highest PM2.5 of the four modes, 67.5 µg/m³.
- What it can't tell you
- Taipei traffic on set routes, not a haze event, so Kalimantan smoke will differ.
Sources
- Metro TV (2026). Ini Daftar 15 Daerah di Sumatra, Kalimantan, dan Sulawesi dengan Udara Berbahaya. Data from the Ministry of Environment ISPU portal, 14 October 2026, 7.57am WIB.
- Kompas (2026). Kualitas Udara Palangka Raya Masuk Kategori Berbahaya. IQAir data, 14 October 2026, 4am WIB.
- World Health Organization (2021). WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.
- Santoso, M., Hopke, P.K., Damastuti, E. et al. (2022). The air quality of Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia: the impacts of forest fires on visibility. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.
- Graham, A.M., Spracklen, D.V., McQuaid, J.B. et al. (2024). Updated smoke exposure estimate for Indonesian peatland fires using a network of low-cost PM2.5 sensors and a regional air quality model. GeoHealth.
- Grosvenor, M.J., Ardiyani, V., Wooster, M.J. et al. (2024). Catastrophic impact of extreme 2019 Indonesian peatland fires on urban air quality and health. Communications Earth & Environment.
- Ardiyani, V., Wooster, M., Grosvenor, M., Lestari, P., Suri, W. (2023). The infiltration of wildfire smoke and its potential dose on pregnant women: lessons learned from Indonesia wildfires in 2019. Heliyon.
- Phung, V.L.H., Ueda, K., Yulianti, N. et al. (2025). Effects of smoke haze on respiratory clinic visits in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia according to different haze characteristics. International Journal of Epidemiology.
- Hayasaka, H., Noguchi, I., Putra, E.I., Yulianti, N., Vadrevu, K. (2014). Peat-fire-related air pollution in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Environmental Pollution.
- Tsai, D.H., Wu, Y.H., Chan, C.C. (2008). Comparisons of commuter's exposure to particulate matters while using different transportation modes. Science of the Total Environment.
Written by Ash, mechanical engineer and founder of Easi Breezi, building an active HEPA filtration system for motorcycle helmets (patent pending). Based between Hong Kong and Bali, riding daily in the traffic this blog writes about.