KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 8 -- The Department of Environment (DOE) has clarified that higher air quality figures displayed on independent mobile applications and third-party websites do not reflect data suppression or inaccuracies in official records

Just as 38 areas in Malaysia logged unhealthy air quality today, the department explained that Malaysia's Air Pollutant Index (API) and commercial Air Quality Index (AQI) platforms frequently show divergent numbers because they rely on different index scales, mathematical models, concentration thresholds, averaging durations, update intervals, and sensory inputs.

Many international applications employ the US AQI standard or rely on low-cost uncalibrated sensors, predictive computational models, or...