'Woman with disabled child was not ARE employee'

The woman whose child was born disabled after she worked at the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) plant in 1980 was not an employee of the plant, said the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).

According to AELB director-general Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, this was informed to him by Mitsubishi Chemicals, which operated the plant which shut down after years of protests in 1992.  

“We had contacted the company after we read the New York Times article. We have every sympathy for her and her very special child.

“Mitsubishi informed me that they did not employ any female workers. So it is likely that she was working for a subcontractor, which means that ARE is not legally bound to give compensation,” he said.

Lai Kwan (left in photo), whose 30-year-old son was born with Down Syndrome, was pregnant when she worked as a labourer with a local contractor to build an additional structure for the ARE facility.

Raja Abdul Aziz said it was also unlikely that Lai’s child was born mentally retarded because of  her exposure to radiation as nerve tissue is the most resistant to radiation.

He, however, conceded that the same cannot be said for leukemia, which can be caused by radiation.

[More to follow]