A video of an emotional father expressing his concerns at a townhall meeting concerning the Pasir Gudang chemical pollution case in Johor Baru began to circulate earlier this week.
The townhall, which reportedly happened on Monday (1st July), was a closed meeting between Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin and industry players in Pasir Gudang. The 49-year-old father of five, Idham Wazir A. Wahab, managed to sneak into the townhall and express his concerns about the situation and how it personally affected his family.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
A video of his outburst was recorded and uploaded to Facebook, showing him yelling at the townhall participants. This happened after the stakeholders began discussing who should spend money for the safety of the people in Pasir Gudang.
According to The Star, Idham Wazir’s 12-year-old son, Irfan Wafiy, was one of the victims during the chemical pollution incident back in March and was admitted in hospital for 10 days. He stated that his son could not walk properly after the pollution and that he had to quit his job as an engineer to look after Irfan.
He can be heard saying in the video,
“My child will be sitting for the UPSR exam in September and now he’s only going to school a few days in one month, and he’s a top student.”
Idham Wazir also urged factory owners to temporarily close their establishments in order for investigations to be carried out.
He told The Star,
“I was really angry because I have spent thousands for my child’s medical treatment and yet they (government and industries) still have the time to argue.”
“No other family or kids should go through what I have gone through with my son. Now I have to go back and forth to Kuala Lumpur because there is no specialist in Johor Baru that can attend to his (Irfan Wafiy) condition.”
Earlier in March, thousands of Malaysians in Pasir Gudang suffered symptoms like vomiting and breathing difficulties due to chemical pollution after an illegal dumping took place at the Kim Kim river.
Source: Asia One
Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin announced that the gases acrylonitrile, acrolein and methyl mercaptan were detected in the area. According to Malaysiakini, Zulkifli Abdul Rashid, a senior chemical engineering lecturer at UiTM, said that acrylonitrile gas could lead to cancer among those exposed for too long. He was quoted as saying,
“If they (the residents) are exposed to this gas odour (acrylonitrile) for too long, it not only has short-term effects on health but can harm the internal organs causing cancer.”
“The results of epidemiological studies show that acrylonitrile can be carcinogenic to humans. Through experiments of chemicals or gas on laboratory mice, it has been found to cause tumours in mice. Even some scientific studies also show that acrylonitrile is also said to cause lung cancer in humans.”
He clarified, however, that people’s likelihood of developing cancer depends on a multitude of other factors like age, how long they were exposed to the gas, and whether or not they have asthma.
Let’s hope that the authorities do their best to resolve this situation to prevent such an incident from repeating itself.
Also read: Update: 2,775 People Are Sick in Pasir Gudang But No State Of Emergency Declared Yet
