More students down with breathing difficulties

JOHOR BARU: The chemical pollution in Pasir Gudang is getting critical with 30 more students down with breathing difficulties.

The students are from SMK Nusa Damai in Taman Scientex, which is about 6km from the site where the chemicals were dumped in Sungai Kim Kim.

This brings the total number of victims to 975 since the incident occurred last Thursday.

An official of the school said at about 10am yesterday, some students experienced breathing difficulties while others fainted.

“A few other students in a classroom complained of a headache. We then gathered all students and told them to go home,” he said.

He said there were also students who experienced vomiting, while others suffered sore eyes, dizziness and chest pain.

Students with more serious complaints were brought to Dewan Taman Pasir Putih, which had been turned into a ground command centre-cum-first health checkpoint.“We had volunteers help the students leave the school in ambulances,” he said when met at the school.

One of the victims, Nur Diana Batrisya Ahmad Sabtu, 14, said panic broke out when one of her classmates cried due to pain in her chest.

“This is when other students also felt the same,” she said.

Najwa Suziele Mohd Zamani, 17, said she had a headache at about 10am before vomiting.

“I was given some medicine for my headache and the doctor told me to go to hospital if my symptoms continued,” she said.

It is learnt that students in several other schools namely SK Taman Scientex, SK Taman Mawar, SMK Taman Rinting and SMK Taman Cendana also had similar complaints.

Authorities believe that airborne chemicals could spread to a larger area as the initial schools affected were all downstream, while SMK Nusa Damai was upstream.

The crisis was sparked off last Wednesday when unknown chemicals were dumped into Sungai Kim Kim.

The following day, 103 students from SK and SMK Pasir Putih were rushed to hospital with respiratory problems.

On Monday, a total of 106 students from the same schools were also affected, followed by 260 people who included 158 students from SK and SMK Tanjung Puteri Resort on Tuesday.