There were no incidents of unusual health problems in Kampung Bukit Koman till March this year, according to the Health Ministry.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said following complaints on public health in the area, the Health Ministry set up a team comprising experts on public and environmental health from the Institute of Medical Research (IMR), Public Health Institute (IKU), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Medical University (IMU) to investigate them.

“For environmental studies, water, air and soil samples were taken by IMR in January and will continue the monthly sampling until December this year.

“Apart from that, air quality monitoring by the Department of Environment (DOE) at its station here to date found the gas (hydrogen cyanide) was below two permissible levels,namely 4.7 part per million (ppm) and 10ppm,” he said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“DOE has monitored the gas level around the mining area by referring to the Cyanide Management Guideline, Department of Mineral and Energy, Western Australia which set the level at 10ppm,” he added.

He was responding to allegations by Pahang Raub Ban Cyanide in Gold Mining Action Committee (BCAC) that the hydrogen cyanide level in Kampung Bukit Koman in Raub was above permissible levels.

- Bernama

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