The Haze and Your Eyes : Surviving the Haze in Singapore

While Singapore experiences some level of haze every year, the situation in 2026 has been much more serious than in the past few years.

Why is there Haze?

The haze in Singapore is mainly due to smoke traveling across borders from forest and land fires in nearby Indonesia. The practice of open burning for clearing agricultural land, and wildfires occurring on easily ignitable peatlands, generates large smoke plumes. During regional dry spells with less rainfall, the drier conditions make vegetation more prone to catching fire, and then allows fires to spread rapidly and burn beneath the surface. The prevailing south-easterly or south-westerly winds then transport the smoke particles over the sea to Singapore.

Looking out the window, you can see that the haze is back in Singapore.

Why does it appear more severe this year (2026)?

The region is facing an exceptionally strong El Niño weather pattern. El Niño significantly increases surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, causing rain clouds to move away from Southeast Asia. This has resulted in extended dry spells, extreme heat, and severe droughts in Indonesia, making peatlands and forests highly flammable.

High urbanization, especially in central Singapore, also leads to an urban heat island effect that creates turbulent, rising air currents and terrain that blocks wind, trapping fine particles (such as PM2.5) closer to the ground.

How does the Haze affect out Eyes?

While much attention has been drawn by how the haze can affect patients with lung and heart problems (and rightly so), the haze can also affect the eyes!

Even in healthy individuals, the fine particles and pollutants in the smoke can irritate the sensitive surface of the eyes, resulting in itching, redness and sharp poking pains. This in turns causes the eyes to become teary, in a natural reflex to wash away the pollutants and soothe the eyes. Those with existing dry eyes or contact lens wear may be more at risk.

But the haze can be a more serious problem for patients with underlying eye allergies. Similar to how the haze can trigger asthma attacks in those with asthma, the haze can also trigger an allergic attack in patients with eye allergies. Symptoms of allergies would include itch, redness, eye swelling and increased discharge. In serious allergy attacks, the vision can be affected and cornea ulcers can even develop.

What can I do to protect my eyes?

Here are some practical steps that you can take to protect your eyes :-

• as far as possible, limit your outdoor activities. If you do have to go outdoors, especially for an extended period of time, try and do so when the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) and PM2.5 is lower. Check the National Environment Agency's Haze website for more details - https://www.haze.gov.sg/

• even while indoors, it would be prudent to keep the air clean. Where possible, keep windows closed and turn on any air purifiers that you may have.

• for those with minor eye irritation, the use of preservative-free artificial tears can help soothe the eyes, as well as dilute or flush away any particles in the eyes. One or two drops should suffice, and this can be repeated throughout the day if necessary.

• there is no need to rinse the eyes out with an eye wash, or worse still, with tap water (which is not sterile and may contain bugs that can infect the eye). And avoid rubbing the eyes! Although it can make the itch feel better, the rubbing can actually irritate the eyes even further, resulting in a vicious cycle of itching and rubbing.

• for patients with known eye allergies, it is important to use your medications regularly in order to prevent an attack. This can include eye drops such as olopatadine and ciclosporin, or ointments such as tacrolimus.

• if the eyes do not seem to be getting better, or if you do have a flare up of an eye allergy, then it is best to see an eye doctor who can assess the seriousness of the condition, and advise you on the most appropriate treatment.

  
  

For an appointment with Dr Khor Wei Boon, a Cornea specialist with years of experience managing chronic and serious eye allergies :

1) Whatsapp +65 9755 2895 for an appointment

2) call us at +65 6836 0900

3) email us at appointments@eyevision.com.sg