Atomic Board officials screen passengers arriving in KK

Kota Kinabalu general hospital is ill-equipped to handle arriving tourists found to have been exposed to nuclear radiation.

KOTA KINABALU: Passengers arriving at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) here will undergo radiation screening following the nuclear fallout in Japan.

Deputy Health Minister for the state Rosnah Abd Rashid Shirlin said the screening of all incoming passengers will be done by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (LPAM) officials.

“(We) contacted the LPAM today and they notified us that it will conduct the radiation screening on passengers at the KKIA, starting tomorrow March 19, at 6am,” said Rosnah yesterday.

“The LPAM will conduct the decontamination procedure if any of the passengers are found with radiation and any passenger detected with radiation symptom will be referred to the hospital,” she said.

Rosnah, who is Papar MP, said medical specialists at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital are coming up with guidance in treating people exposed to nuclear radiation.

Hospitals around Kota Kinabalu have been directed to put their preparations in place to receive any patients for radiation treatment.

Hospital not equipped

Two days ago, Malaysia Airport Berhad manager here, Kamaruzzaman Razali, said all incoming passengers and their baggages from Japan would be screened for any symptoms of radiation upon arrival at the KKIA.

“We received a directive from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to carry out the screening. The operation is also carried out by them,” he said.

Kamaruzzaman added that the screening was a precautionary measure taken by both the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 (located n Tanjung Aru).

He said however that the operation was strictly directly at passengers who boarded flights from Japan.

However, in the event passengers arriving at the KKIA are found to have been exposed to the nuclear fallout in Japan, the city’s main general hospital is woefully equipped to handle any kind of emergency.

The replacement Queen Elizabeth Hospital II which shares its premises with the privately run Sabah Medical Centre, is still undergoing repairs and renovation two years on after the main Queen Elizabeth Hospital building in the heart of the city was declared unsafe and demolished. - FMT