Smouldering ruins of Rayong factory emitting cancer-causing compounds: EARTH

This advisory issued by Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH) is in sharp contradiction to the announcement of the Pollution Control Department (PCD) issued on Thursday.

PCD said that only the air within the 350-metre radius of the Win Process Co Ltd factory was dangerous to health. This is in the wake of a massive chemical fire that was sparked on Monday and waged for more than 32 hours before dying down. It said its officials had tested the quality of air within a radius of 350 metres to 4.5 kilometres and did not find dangerous levels of chemicals contaminating the air.

EARTH, however, disagreed, saying its team had checked the air quality in the area from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning and found high levels of contamination in the air that posed a health risk to the people.

It also said that people living within a 3km radius of the factory should remain away until the smouldering heaps of chemicals stop emitting fumes and are completely out.

It explained that a test within the 3km radius of the factory found the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of more than 200 ppb (parts per billion units), which is dangerous to health. VOCs can cause cancer, EARTH said.

It added that the air around the factory had more than 1,000 µg/m3 (microgrammes per cubic metre) of small dust particles in the air. EARTH added that people living in villages Moo 1, 4 and 8, in the vicinity of the factory, had taken photographs of white smoke covering their area at 7am on Thursday before it was blown away by strong winds later in the morning.