MIC leader wants cops to probe if cancer deaths linked to illegal factory

MIC treasurer-general S Vell Paari has urged the police to investigate if there is a link between the illegal carbon filter factory in Penang and cancer-related deaths among surrounding residents.

“There have been reports of multiple deaths from cancer in Sungai Lembu where apparently 11 out of 500 villagers now have cancer. While five young adults there died of cancer in the past two years. I hope police will investigate this,” he said in a media statement.

The factory is at the heart of the recent arrest of Penang state executive councillor Phee Boon Poh by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Vell Paari also cited a News Straits Times report on Sunday which claimed that residents in Sungai Lembu were affected by the burning of 2,000 tonnes of sawdust monthly in order to produce activated carbon.

The NST report had quoted figures from the Health Department as stating that the cancer incidence rate in Sungai Lembu was 2,342 percent higher than the national average though there was no direct medical evidence that sawdust had been responsible.

Meanwhile, Vell Paari questioned why opposition politicians had not staged demonstrations for the factory to be shut down "like what they did to Lynas previously".

"Previously, when investors from Australia wanted to build a legal and world class facility i.e. Lynas, nearly all opposition leaders demonstrated in Kuantan demanding that Lynas be shut down," he said.

He also sarcastically “thanked” Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for admitting that the factory was illegal and had been “operating under the nose of the state government for the past 10 years”.

Lim previously defended Phee, stating that illegal factories in the state were undergoing legalisation exercise since the DAP-led government came into power in 2008.

“May I know how many more illegal factories there are in Penang that are allowed to operate illegally with the blessing of the state government?

“May I know the terms and conditions of this so-called 'negotiation' and how many other illegal companies were given this kind of preferential treatment?” asked Vell Paari.

Meanwhile, Oriental Daily reported that the factory owner's son, who only wanted to know as Gan, said his father planned to close down the factory.

Gan said his 70-year-old father had previously submitted an application for legalisation but failed to receive approval from the local council.

"We decided not to continue with the business anymore, especially because my father is old and this kind of mental pressure (of being arrested and put under the national spotlight) is not good for him," he was quoted as saying. - Mkini