Yeo: Pasir Gudang chemical factories must adopt nearby schools, provide mandatory gas detectors

JOHOR BARU: All chemical factories in Pasir Gudang are required to adopt schools nearest to their premises and provide them with mandatory gas detectors, says Yeo Bee Yin.

The Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister said the factories would also be required to conduct continuous air quality monitoring at the schools they have adopted.

“This is one of the ways we can ensure that we can get continuous data. If the reading is high, the Pasir Gudang Municipal Council (MPPG) can take a more accurate reading using Gasmet.

“The Environment Department (DOE) has made it mandatory for all chemical industries to provide these detectors to the schools,” she said at a press conference at Menara Aqabah here Monday (July 1).

Yeo said that for the time being, the government had rented the device to the industries until they can provide the device for the schools themselves.

“The air quality monitoring will still be continued by the government, and when the schools have their own devices, the teachers would conduct the monitoring themselves,” she said, adding that the teachers would be taught how to use the device.

Yeo added that she would also present a memorandum in Cabinet on Friday (July 5), asking for allocations to set up a pollution monitoring system in Pasir Gudang immediately.

“So in the future, there would be an automated air pollution monitoring system at Pasir Gudang that the public can access online.

“For the time being, we have to do it manually by renting these devices to the factories until the systems are in place,” said Yeo.

There are currently 250 chemical factories in Pasir Gudang and 111 primary and secondary schools.