From: waseems@sco.COM (Waseem Siddiqi)
Subject: Dvelopment in Malaysia: At what price?
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 05:27:03 GMT

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             Deformities spark fears of 'new Minamata'
                              by
                      Charles P Wallace

Taken without permission from The Toronto Star Dec 12, 1992
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Bukit Merah, Malaysia - 

Cradling her deformed 9-year old son in her arms like a baby, Lai Kwan shook 
her fist in impotent anger. 'Its all the fault of that factory,' she said,
'They never told us of the dangers.'

For the past seven years, the people of this small Malaysian village have
waged an epic battle against the giant Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi
charging that it pollutes their town with radioactive waste. 

In late October, Woo Chee Hoe, another 9-year old boy, died of a rare pineal 
gland tumor, one of six people in the village who have succumbed to rare 
illnesses which their doctors attribute to radiation exposure. The victims 
included two children who died of leukemia, a figure far out of proportion
to the ocurrence of the disease in the rest of the country.

Doctors also found a steep rise in lead poisoning, a decline in white blood 
counts and a rise in miscarriages and birth defects.

In July, a high court judge sided with the villages and ordered the plant,
called Asian Rare Earths Co., closed within 14 days. But the country's
Supreme Court quickly vacated the order and indicated that it would not
be as sympathetic when it hears an appeal in the case later this year.

For Mitsubishi, which has denied charges of creating a safety hazard,
the legal case represents a public relations nightmare. The controversy has
stirred memories of the 1950s pollution scandal in the Japanese city
of Minimata, when the local industrial company dumped mercury into
seawater, causing a rash of birth defects.

The case has also publicly embarrassed the Japanese governmenet who
regularly claims to have done much to stop the despoliation of the Third World.

Legal scholars who are looking closely at the case because it is the 
first time a community in the Third World has sued to stop a multinational
firm from allegedly causing harmful pollution. The case is also expected
to lead to a new definition of how much nuclear radiation is considered 
safe to a community.

Whether valid or not, the effort to close the factory is widely
seen as a threat to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed's cherished hopes
of industrialising Malaysia by 2020.

There is concern in the government that if the village prevails,
it could set a precedent for challenges to other industrial dvelopments.
Mahathir's pet project is Southeast Asia's first home-grown automobile,
the Proton Saga, a joint venture between the Malaysian government and
Mitsubishi.

The Asian Rare Earths factory here was established in 1982 as a joint 
venture between Mitsubishi Kasei, which owns a 35-percent stake, 
a Chinese owned tin mine and a private fund that finances Muslims 
making the religious pilgrimage to Mecca.

The factory takes a byproduct of tin mining called monazite and processes 
it into a rare element called yttrium, which is used in the manufacture of
colour TV tubes. The production process releases radioative radon gas during 
manufacturing  and leaves a waste called thorium hydroxide, which is 
radioactive and considered more harmful to humans than uranium.

During lenghty legal proceedings, town residents testified that in the
first years of production, the company dumped the waste on a vacant lot 
behind the factory in plastic bags, later covering the dump with sand. 
Villagers were told that the waste makes good fertilizer, and some used it in
their home vegetable plots.

'The processing of monazite is an abandoned industry in Japan', said Hew
Yoon Tat, who heads a residents' committee that was formed in 1982 to fight 
the factory. 'They moved to Malaysia because we don't have the technology
to know the damage its causing'.

Trial testimony suggested the Japanese stopped refining monazite in 1972
because of concerns about pollution and the cost involved.

'Malaysia gets nothing from the factory, except they leave the waste behind.
The social costs of the waste are staggering', said Gurdial Singh Nijar,
an attorney for the Bukit Merah residents.

Asked to comment on the question, Asian Rare Earths officials
declined to speak with a reporter. A spokesman for Mitsubishi Kasei in Japan,
Kenzo Tamura said, 'We are confident with the results of our investigations.
We are sure the plant is safe.' 

But Dr Rosalie Bertell, a Canadian expert on the long-term effects of 
nuclear radiation, argued that 'there is an extraordinary excess in Bukit
Merah. It was clearly a mistake to site the factory in a populated area.
There is no way they can operate and keep it safe. You're either going
to expose the workers or the community. There is no way to keep in the
dust and gas.'

Dr Thambyappa Jayabalan, a doctor now based in Penang, became so involved
with the Bukit Merah case that he gave up a practice in Kuala Lumpur
to open an office in the village. 

Among Jayabalan's findings was that the waste contains lead sulfate as
well as radioactive materials, so he used lead as a 'marker'
to determine if the waste was being observed. He tested 104 children
and found 48 with toxic levels of lead.

'Thers is no doubt that these cases are from the plant,' he said. 

Meenakshi Raman, a lawyer working with the Consumer Association of Penang,
said a fundamental part of the Bukit Merah case is to challenge the belief
that low-level doses of radiation are acceptable, as the nuclear induxtry has 
long maintained.

'Our case is tht there is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation,' she
said. 'Given the close proximity of the people, the factory should not be 
there.'

The company has built a permanent waste disposal site about 10 miles from
the plant, about five years ago it carried out a cleanup of the old dumpsite 
in an effort to remove the waste scattered around the village. Ironically
doctors believe the cleanup contributed to a rash of illnesses because
it stirred up wastes that had been buried.

Even with safer waste storage, however, the trial court held that the 
leakage of radon gases 'inevitably' led to higher radiation in the village.
'In my opinion, such radioactive radon gases are extremely dangerous to health
and would cause very serious injuries the long-term, ' the judge wrote.

The Asian Rare Earths factory has remained closed since the judge's ruling,
despite getting the Supreme Court's permission to reopen. Kenzo Tamura,
the Mitsubishi kasei spokesperson said that after the high court rules,
the three partners will meets to 'decide how to handle ARE's business'.
-- 
Waseem A. Siddiqi                                 Tel:   (416) 922 1937 
SCO Canada                                        email: waseems@sco.com 
Toronto, Canada                                          utcsri!scocan!waseems