Executive Summary The national headlines of toxic gas poisoning incidents affecting thousands of innocent schoolchildren in Pasir Gudang, not once but twice, back to back in March and June of 2019, shocked the Malaysian public. Calls from many quarters demanded immediate action by the government to find and close down the source of the gases, to treat the affected victims, to catch and charge the culprits, and to stop recurrence of the tragedy in the future. The Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) Task Force on Sungai Kim Kim and Pasir Gudang Incidents was formed with the support of the Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) to investigate the source of the toxic gases and to recommend steps to prevent recurrence in the future. The shocking events started in March when a total of 5,039 people were treated for various symptoms like nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath. An investigation by the HAZMAT team discovered chemical wastes illegally dumped into Sungai Kim Kim River. A major clean-up ensued and the toxic chemical poisoning incident was declared over on 4 April 2019. However, more cases of nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath were reported in June 2019. This time, 1,178 people were affected, and most of them were children.
Currently, the acceptable conditions for acrolein, acrylonitrile and methyl mercaptan that would classify them as pollutants under EQA 1974 are not yet established. They are therefore legally not “pollutants”. Cumulative releases might exceed the loading capacity in the environment even if individual releases satisfy the acceptable conditions. The definition of environmentally hazardous substances (EHS) is too general and vague and not tied to their hazardous characteristics. In a previous study, “A Study to Strengthen the Governance Hazardous Chemicals in Malaysia”, it was found that there is no national chemical inventory, no clear mechanism to reduce/eliminate chemical risks at the national level, and no central coordinating entity to manage upstream chemicals.
The close proximity of the mixed light, medium and heavy industrial factories to large residential areas, which is the inevitable result of the growing industry taking up the largest proportion (38%) of the land and encroaching into residential areas; and the reduction of the buffer zone for heavy industry to only 500m, had increased the risk of a major industrial accident that could badly affect the surrounding public. In addition, the three rivers in the area, Sungai Kim Kim, Sungai Masai and Sungai Tukang Batu are found to be already polluted in 2017, which increases the risk of more illegal dumping of chemical waste in them.
The Task Force checked with records at Jabatan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan (JKKP) Johor whether any of the toxic gases were stored or used in large quantities at the premises of chemical companies in order to identify the culprit. Information on chemicals stored at the company’s premises could be found in the Chemical Information and Management System (CIMS). However, currently, chemical factories only report in the CIMS storage of imported and manufactured chemicals exceeding one metric tonne but not the chemicals they buy from local companies. The information in CIMS was found by the Task Force to be incomplete because it is not audited often enough. Additional information on hazardous chemicals stored or used by chemical factories can be found in Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA) but the information was not freely available at JKKP for Task Force viewing.
Most of the victims, schoolchildren in the third and fourth floors of the school buildings, reported smelling acrid odour and experiencing vomiting, nausea, dizziness, short of breath, eye irritation, chest pain, sore throat and cough, which is consistent with the effects of a mixture of toxic gases, later identified as acrolein, acrylonitrile, methyl mercaptan and benzene. Schoolchildren are more vulnerable compared to adults because they have greater lung surface area that could absorb more chemicals easily.
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