Everything About the Pasir Gudang Toxic Gas Pollution That Has Caused Schools to Close

Before anything, you’d need to know where Pasir Gudang is.

Pasir Gudang is located in Johor Babru, on the northeast of Singapore. However, it’s not an area that we Singaporeans head to regularly as it’s an industrial town.

So, what happened?

Air Pollution Since 20 June 2019

Last Thursday, fifteen students from a school in Pasir Gudang allegedly fell ill due to possible exposure to poisonous gas. They had difficulty breathing and were vomiting, and five of them had to be sent to a hospital.

The Malaysia health minister then announced that it could have been due to “poisonous gas or those volatile organic gas volatile compound”, similar to an incident that happened in March 2019 when the air was polluted due to illegal dumping of chemical waste in Sungai Kim Kim, a river in Pasir Gudang.

Back then, all schools in Pasir Gudang were closed for about two weeks, and 4,000 people fell ill from the pollution.

In this latest incident, after more cases of breathing difficulties and vomiting were reported, all schools within a 6-km radius of Sekolah Agama Taman Mawar were closed.

Confirmed: Same Pollution, Different Month

Yesterday (24 June 2019), it’s confirmed that the pollution was once again caused by chemical waste from Sungai Kim Kim.

However, it’s not due to new illegal dumping of chemical waste; instead, back in March, the cleaning contractor assigned to clean the waste hasn’t done a thorough job, and so, “as the hazardous materials have been exposed to wind and rain, the uncontrolled airborne substances may have spread and affected the people once again.”

Is Singapore Affected?

Given our close proximity to Pasir Gudang, are we affected, especially for people staying in the northeast region of Singapore?

According to Mothership, NEA considers the situation “worrying” and is monitoring the progress closely.

However, the air quality here remains good and the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in the air are also within safe levels and have remained low.

In other words, the problem in Malaysia is now solved, the air is now good (has always been good, actually) and you’ve no excuse to siam your IPPT.