Exco report shows Lynas complied with regulations

PETALING JAYA: The executive committee report on the operations of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) finds that the rare earth refinery has generally complied with regulations and has recommended further action to rectify the flaws.

It said that LAMP followed regulations under the Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984 (Act 304), Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127), Factories and Machineries Act 1967 (Act 92, 139), Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514) and Industrial Co-ordination Act 1975 (Act 156).

The committee said LAMP had also taken proactive initiatives to comply with other standards and international practices on its own accord.

It said the Health Ministry’s observations on diseases at the LAMP site found that there was no significant increase in cancer since LAMP started operating there.

It added that the Health Ministry had also found no significant increase in diseases monitored such as conjunctivitis, asthma, upper respiratory tract infection, congenital malformation, spontaneous abortion and contact dermatitis.

It found that radiation levels of 16 was too low to be a health risk to people who lived near the Gebeng industrial site.

Despite the low health risk at the Lynas site, the executive committee found an increase of heavy metal concentration such as nickel, chromium, lead and mercury in ground water, adding that nickel and chromium were carcinogenic substances.

It called for a special study to be done to identify the presence of the heavy metal.

It said ground water monitoring must be carried out at Sungai Ular and Sungai Balok as 12.5% of households used the same ground water for daily use.