Locals who have filed a lawsuit claiming industrial estates in the province are hazardous to public health say they have more than enough evidence to prove the point, but they are afraid environmental justice will take a back seat to economic development
Arom Sodmanee is wondering how Deputy Prime Minister Kobsak Sabhavasu will be able to keep a recent promise to tackle the many environmental problems at the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong province when he is surrounded by the same old set of officials and business people who have always favoured investment over the quality of life of the people in the area.
''We have to thank him in advance if he can do it,'' said Ms Arom, one of the co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit before the Supreme Administrative Court , which on Sept 29 ordered the suspension of operating permits for 76 industrial projects in Map Ta Phut pending a decision on the lawsuit. The outcome of the lawsuit relies heavily on the court's interpretation of Section 67 of the 2006 Constitution. The government has appealed the suspension ruling and a new round of hearings began on Nov 12.
Ms Arom says she is familiar with the unfulfilled promises of politicians, but will give the deputy PM a chance. She implied that at least on the one day every two weeks when he comes to Rayong the factories are careful to keep their pollution to a minimum.
Local communities are placing high hopes on the Administrative Court, as they believe that they have the facts and information to make the case that the industrial estate is seriously impacting the health of locals.
Ms Arom said the affected people want to use facts, not ''fist'', but added that during the hearing of Nov 12 a public prosecutor had shown his bias by challenging a lawyer for the plaintiffs to a fight outside the courtroom. She said the incident was witnessed by everyone who attended the hearing, including judges.
Many residents of Rayong also say they want the facts about the operations of the eight industrial estates in the province to be made available to the general public. Ordinary villagers have heard the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) tell them that they can obtain information related to industrial estates at its office at any time. However, when the Bangkok Post submitted a letter to the governor of the IEAT asking for information about the type of factories in industrial estates in Rayong and the types of chemicals used or manufactured in those factories, we were made to wait for three weeks before being told that it was difficult to collect the requested information from all industrial estates in the province. The requested information concerned basic monitoring of chemicals and their environmental carrying capacity _ the level of pollution that can be maintained without people experiencing significant adverse consequences.
The director of the Map Ta Phut Industrial Port, Aroon Hengtavorn said: ''I can only give information about the factories at Map Ta Phut.''
Fair enough, but if there is no centralised information about pollution coming from all the refineries and factories in the province, how can the IEAT know whether or not to grant permission for new facilities to operate?
SECTION 67 KEY TO RULING
According to the joint lawsuit filed by the Stop Global Warming Association and 41 local villagers, including Ms Arom, the 76 projects proposed for Rayong province can be classified roughly as 65 industrial projects, six transportation projects and five energy projects. Unfortunately, people on the street hear next to nothing about the nature of the proposed projects. In fact these 65 projects are heavy industries such as iron mills and related operations, chemicals manufacturers (some carcinogenic) and a number of refinery projects.
Records from the Administrative Court rul ing of Sept 29 indicate that some of the defendants submitted documents which clearly state they have done everything according to the environmental standards required by the Thai government.
The National Environmental Board (NEB) _ one of eight defendants in the lawsuit, which are all government agencies _ has said that strategies to solve the pollution problems cannot be implemented immediately, and it is necessary to proceed with caution so as not to destroy the image of the country.
The defendants also say there are no clear guidelines regarding the all-important Section 67, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, which stipulates that any new project that might seriously affect the livelihood of local people must conduct not only an environmental impact assessment (EIA), but also a Health Impact Assessment (HIA), as well as allow public participation in these assessments.
The major defendants and some project holders have argued that it is not possible to determine whether a project will ''seriously affect'' the livelihood of the people.
The defendants also point out that there is no organic law to facilitate implementation of Section 67. The IEAT has consulted with the Council of State (CoS) on this matter, and the CoS agrees there is presently no legal framework to determine whether anyone is seriously affected, and thus it is the duty of the Cabinet to improve the law or issue a law to protect the rights and liberty of the people within one year. The IEAT has interpreted this to mean that in the meantime, when there is no such law in place, the concerned government agencies _ the Office of Environmental Planning and Policy and the Industrial Works Department _ can continue to give permission or grant licences to operate industrial activities.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, another of the defendants named in the joint lawsuit, has said some of the 76 projects ''might'' cause environmental impacts, but it should not be generalised that all projects will cause ''serious impacts'' to the communities.
Moreover, agencies such as the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) have submitted reports stating that their operations do not emit chemicals beyond the permissible levels stipulated in their EIAs.
'RECKLESS' OPERATIONS
Pollution cases are different from those involving ordinary crimes, because even if affected people have evidence, proving that industrial pollution results in damaged health is a daunting task.
Noi Jaitang, who lives near one estate and has lost six of his family members to cancer, said:''One after another my relatives died, it seemed like almost everyday, but no one admitted that the cause of the deaths are the recklessness of their [industrial estates] operations.
''We have the same right as everyone else to a clean and healthy environment. Now we are depending on the court to help us access justice,'' said Mr Noi.
Statistics from several sources support Mr Noi's suspicions that something about the environment is unhealthy. According to the National Cancer Institute, the incidence of cancer in residents of Muang district of Rayong, where the Map Ta Phut industrial estate is located, is 182.45 per 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 122.6. The leukaemia rate is also higher; 6 per 100,000 people, whereas the national average is about 3.55. According to Rayong Provincial Public Health Office, the rate of birth deformities, disabilities and chromosomal abnormalities drastically increased from 1997 to 2001, from 48.2 per 100,000 people to 163.8 people, an increase of 300%.
Statistics from the Bureau of Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Public Health, show there is also a higher rate of illnesses in Rayong province affecting the respiratory system compared with other parts of the country with 625 out of every 1,000 people visiting hospital outpatient departments, compared to the national average of 457 out of 1,000 in 2008.
Environmental activists and citizens groups are asking why the health situation in Rayong is different than in the rest of the country, and what is the carrying capacity to receive more pollution in the air, water and soil. They say these are also the questions Thailand's policy makers should be asking before they allow more industrial development in the province.
But after hearing the remarks of some of these policy makers, they fear the decision will be based instead on the amount of financial damage that might be done to the country and the 76 project holders if the projects are not allowed to continue.
UNFRIENDLY SKIES
In a recent effort to determine just what exactly is in the skies around Rayong, Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (Earth) and Global Community Monitor from the United States monitored the air in real time in the Map Ta Phut area. They were able to document high levels of toxic chemicals in the air, some of them 30 times higher than what is considered safe by the Thai Pollution Control Department (PCD).
The real-time monitor detected two peak exposures of a cancer-causing chemical, 1,3-butadiene, at 122 and 150 parts per billion (ppb) (taken at 6.49am and 10.25am, respectively, on the same day) downwind of some chemical factories in Rayong. These numbers are more than 33 times higher than the al lowable level set by the PCD (see graphic).
They also detected high levels of other toxic gases around Map Ta Phut, including p-Xylene (78ppb), toluene (65ppb), SO2 (58ppb) and NO (25ppb).
The pollution patrol team reported headaches and nausea within minutes of their exposure and fled the area.
Penchom Tang of Earth said the mobile real-time monitor they used is manufactured in the US by Argos Scientific and is widely used around the world by a number of agencies, including the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to locate pollution sources and identify opportunities to reduce contamination and waste from industrial operations.
The PCD, on the other hand, said that the monitor used was not reliable.
''The device has its limitations ... especially when it is moved in a car, it is probably contaminated with the vehicle's exhaust fumes,'' said Supat Wangwattana, the PCD director-general, in a Nov 9 press release. He also said that the PCD uses an average over 24 hours when reporting samples.
However, even in the PCD's own reports, which can be seen on its website, the levels of several toxic chemicals are higher than acceptable (see graphic). These include 1,3-butadiene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and benzene, as detected by PCD's own device from stations located in different parts of Rayong.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization, benzene and 1,3-butadiene are carcinogenic to humans. From IARC's occupational studies of workers exposed to high levels of benzene, it has been shown to cause leukaemia, a cancer of the bone marrow where blood cells are made.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Working Group also classified 1,3-butadiene as ''carcinogenic to humans'' on the basis of ''sufficient evidence'' of an increased risk for leukaemia in humans.
The US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says 1,3-butadiene, a chemical used largely in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, is a multiple organ carcinogen in rats and mice. 1,2-dichloroethane is classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans.
Therefore, it is crucial to know what kinds and how much of pollutants factories operating in Rayong's industrial estates are generating. Each type of factory generates its own set of pollutants.
Surin Komhong couldn't wait for environmental justice. She passed away on Nov 17 after suffering from a skin disease for three years. No doctor has come out with a determination of the cause of her disease, but her friends point out that she lived in a house surrounded by factories in Map Kha village.
''The issues at Map Ta Phut have come into the limelight once again. Before they fade we want the government to tackle our problems seriously. There is enough evidence to show why our health situation has gone from bad to worse,'' said Ms Arom, who was one of Surin's neighbours.
Supakij Natavorakarn from the Public Health Research Foundation pointed to a study by the NEB in 2003 which indicated the environmental carrying capacity for various pollutants in Map Ta Phut had already been exceeded at that time.
''It was a daft report, but it was modified for many years without participation from the public,'' he said.
Then in 2007, deputy PM Kosit Panpiemras ordered a study to review environmental carrying capacities in the area, with simulations conducted to include additional factors at play in Map Ta Phut.
The study is supposed to be finished within a year.
However, Mr Supakij said, ''Presently, we have not seen any progress made on such a study.'' He added that it is high time the government paid serious attention to the problems of Map Ta Phut.
''We already have enough studies to reveal that the environmental carrying capacity is being exceeded beyond acceptable levels for human beings,'' he said.
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