Highly toxic waste dumped in Perak
Suspect held as experts say the poison is enough to kill seven million people
IPOH — Forty-one drums of highly toxic potassium cyanide have been found, dumped on The north-east coast of Pulau Pangkor near here, just 100 m from three fish farms.
According to The Star yesterday, police have detained a suspect while the Fisheries Department has ordered fishermen on the island not to sell their catch temporarily.
The drums were found at Sungal Pinang Kecil on Sunday night after more than 1,000 fish at the farms died.
The Star learnt that the ~uspect, a Pangkor resident, had obtained a M$18,000 (S$lO,000) contract to dispose of the toxic waste brought in from a factory in Butterworth, Penang.
Several more drums of the poison were found at his house.
Villagers helped the police remove the badly dented and rusty drums to a nearby hill where a warning was put up.
Pulau Pangkor Marine Products Association secretary Peh Cho Huat said on Monday that they used a tractor to remove the drums from the dump which was situated about 1 km from the village.
He said that farm owners had told him they saw someone unloading the drums from a boat onto the beach three days ago.
"The owners did not suspect anything until the fish began to die."
He said about half the fish had died with losses estimated at M$200,000.
Utusan Malaysia yesterday quoted Perak Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib, as saying that the state government would investigate the dumping.
He believed the waste came from factories in Singapore, although the possibility had not been confirmed.
He said Perak would ask the marine police and the local authorities to be vigilant to ensure that foreign countries did not dump toxic waste on the state’s coastline.
"The government will not hesitate to act against agents of foreign ships or local residents responsible for dumping toxic waste," he was quoted by Utusan as saying in Ipoh on Monday.
This is the second time in recent years that Perak has been made a dumping ground of highly toxic waste.
In 1989, more than 1,500 tonnes of toxic waste were dumped off the beaches of Pantal Remis by a Singaporean company, which was later made to pay MS500,000 to store the remaining waste properly.
Meanwhile, AFP reported yesterday that the police had launched a probe• into the dumping of the potassium cyanide, which experts said could kill about seven million people.
Mr Lawrence Sii, spokesman for Environment Minister Datuk Law Hieng Ding, said: "A full-scale investigation is under way into the dumping. We are awaiting a report from the Department of the Environment, DOE, to decide on the next course of action.
"The DOE is liaising with the police who are handling the case now," he told AFP in Kuala Lumpur.
Local news reports quoted chemists as saying that if the cyanide was exposed to air, some hydrolysis would occur releasing lethal hydrogen cyanide gas, a substance that had been used in the past for gas-chamber executions.
The National Poison Centre in Penang said the lethal gas might be released in the presence of moisture, acids or even extreme heat.
"Exposure as low as 50 to 200 parts per million to this colourless gas can be instantly fatal," it warned.
Source : The Straits Times 22nd Mar 1995
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