I feel disheartened by the fact that despite our complaints and frequent postings on our website , the sawmills in Bakar Arang Industrial Estate continue to pollute the environment by burning their wood chips illegally. There was a terrible pungent smell in the air in Taman Patani Jaya, Sungai Petani, at around 9pm on Jan 2 and thick smoke was seen coming out from WH Timber Industries until the next morning.

Many residents have called up to inform Sungai Petani Bersih that they suffered severe eye irritation and difficulties in breathing due to the offensive odour emitted that night. There were at least three residents who had to seek medical treatment after they experienced continuous tearing of the eyes.

It is rather ominous that there should be two similar complaints in The Star about unattended pollution in two other towns in Malaysia. The letters were entitled ' Open burning continues despite complaints ' and ' Errant factories causing pollution in Klang area '.

These two letters further supports our claim that factories all over the country do not respect the Environmental Act and have no sense of responsibility towards the health of the people. We share the frustrations and sentiments of both writers as we are faced with the same situation here in Sungai Petani.

We hope that the Department of Environment will be able to solve this problem before the situation gets out of hand. These factories are slowly poisoning our population. Eye irritation and difficulty in breathing are only some of the immediate effect caused by pollution. There will be more sinister diseases looming ahead if we fail to address the problem now.

The method of issuing summons and fines to these offenders is no longer viable as a means of deterrent. In the multi-million-ringgit industries of today, a fine of a few thousand ringgit is merely seen as a minor inconvenience to the owners. A better solution would be to revoke their licences and stop their operations if they are found to contravene the Environmental Act.

The health of the nation should come first above everything else. What is the use of nurturing a bustling economy if it compromises the health of the people? These irresponsible captains of industries will continue to savour their sweet bread of success, while the people are left with the crumb of pollution and its effects.