The word 'haze' acquired an unpleasant connotation in Southeast Asia in 1997, quite unlike the mild image it usually conjures up.
'The Haze' that blanketed parts of Indonesia, all of Singapore and most of Malaysia for more than four months was not the 'thin atmospheric vapour' depicted in the Pocket Oxford Dictionary but, at its worst, a thick, noxious, if not toxic, brew of smoke, ash and exhaust fumes.
The first two ingredients, which were carried on the wind from forest, scrub and peat fires in Indonesia, raised air pollution levels to health-threatening levels when they blended with vehicle and factory emissions in Singapore and urban areas of Malaysia.
In Kuala Lumpur, for days on end, the haze was thick enough to obscure the sun and reduce buildings to shadowy shapes.
The elderly, children and people suffering from chest and nose complaints were advised to stay indoors or move to safer areas when the Malaysia Air Pollutant Index rose above 101, the level at which the air quality was deemed to be unhealthy.
But the reading climbed above the 200 mark in the capital and other centres, touching 300 on several occasions.