STILL BAFFLED OVER PASIR GUDANG GAS FUMES SOURCE
Presence of 3 gases detected, believed to have an effect on high-risk groups, says minister
THE presence of three gases — one of which was described as an anomaly — in Pasir Gudang’s atmosphere is believed to have played a role in the breathing difficulties, nausea and vomiting episodes suffered by scores of schoolchildren in the district last week.
However, with 111 schools now temporarily closed and 748 cases later, the authorities still cannot establish how such a high concentration of these gases came to be.
The Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry yesterday revealed that checks showed that air quality readings in the district contained high amounts of three gases — methyl mercaptan, acrylonitrile and acrolein.
The presence of methyl mercaptan, a colourless, flammable gas, is a cause for concern for the authorities.
The gas is mainly used to produce methionine, which is used as a dietary supplement for poultry and animal feed.
It is also used in industrial applications as an intermediate in the production of pesticides, fungicides, plastics and animal feed additives.
It can cause headaches, nausea, eye irritation and respiratory distress at high doses.
At significant doses, methyl mercaptan inhalation can lead to more serious health complications, or in some cases, death.
Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said the presence of the gases was an anomaly.
She said due to the saturated atmospheric environment in the Pasir Gudang district, such an anomaly would have an effect on high-risk groups, such as children and people suffering from asthma.
Its amount, she said, was higher than any other district in the country.
Yeo said they could not trace the source. She said 10 pupils, who were hospitalised after suffering from breathing difficulties, came from eight schools.
“In addition, the presence of these gases was not detected in the patients’ blood and urine samples.
“Therefore, we cannot make a 100 per cent confirmation that there is a cause and effect link between the Pasir Gudang pollution and the earlier pollution of Sungai Kim Kim,” she said at the Health Ministry here yesterday.
There were initial fears that the recent incident could have been a repeat of the toxic chemical pollution of Sungai Kim Kim in March, which affected more than 6,000 residents in the district.
Yeo said her ministry had taken immediate steps to dispose of the factors contributing to the presence of these gases, and had continued with the enforcement and monitoring of chemical-based factories in Pasir Gudang.
It is learnt that to date, 100 tonnes of chemical substances have been removed.
Yeo cited the unsustainable development in Pasir Gudang as a factor that affected the quality of air, soil and rivers.
Pasir Gudang, she said, had 2,005 licensed factories, of which 250 were chemical-based.
“Some high-risk factories have no physical buffer zones from residential areas and schools.
“Buffer zones were not taken into account. Some schools are only 300m away from the highrisk industries.”
She said plans to draw up buffer zones were being laid out by the Johor government.
“Buffers will be put in place as soon as possible for schools in high-risk areas.
“This is a wake up call for us, the government, to start looking at these industrial areas, not just in Pasir Gudang, but the entire country.”
She said her ministry would take other steps to address the issue, including creating a system to determine the air-carrying capacity by using the air dispersion modelling method commonly used in developed countries.
The ministry, she said, planned to build an automatic gas observation station so that any chemical disaster cases in the future could be detected immediately.
“The ministry believes it will be able to follow through all of the plans before the end of the year.
“We will hold a town hall session with all chemical industry players in Pasir Gudang on Monday.”
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr
Dzulkefly Ahmad, who was present, said 748 cases of breathing difficulties were reported in Pasir Gudang, with 709 treated as outpatients, while 39 required hospitalisation. He said to date, clinical sample results for chemical tests, such as hydrogen cyanide, cyanide, hydrogen thiocyanide and volatile organic substances, tested negative.
Dr Dzulkefly said six of the 10 patients, aged between 10 and 17, were found to have anxiety symptoms, detected through the depression anxiety stress scales test.
Three of them were involved in the Sungai Kim Kim incident, he said.
He said all six pupils would be given follow-up treatment and referred to child psychiatrists to find out the cause of the anxiety symptoms.