A group called the Network of Eastern People yesterday complained that the National Environment Board (NEB) was putting big business before people's health.

The outcry came after a Pollution Control Department (PCD) proposal to declare Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate an environmental-control zone failed to win an immediate green light.

At its meeting this past Thursday, the Environment Board decided to establish committees to study carcinogen levels at the estate and control emissions from its factories.

The study will take one year.

"Why are the National Environment Board and government reluctant to declare Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate an environmental-control zone?" Network of Eastern People coordinator Sutti Atchasai asked.

"Is this because they care more about impact on investment than people's health?"

The group is seeking a January 21 meeting with Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Sanidwong na Ayudhaya.

"We will travel from Rayong to Chanthaburi to wait for Kasem because he's scheduled to make an inspection there that day," Sutti said.

A National Cancer Institute study conducted between 1997 and 2001 found Map Ta Phut residents had three to five times more reported incidences of leukaemia than those living elsewhere.

However, Rayong public-health chief Dr Wiwat Wiriyakijja said yesterday only an in-depth study could determine if pollution from the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate was to blame.

PCD director-general Dr Supat Wangwongwattana said an in-depth study was necessary if a co-relation between pollution and higher rates of leukaemia was to be used to declare the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate an environmental-control zone.

According to Supat, the National Environment Board committee includes experts from the National Cancer Institute, Chulabhorn Research Institute, Thammasat Univer-sity, the PCD and the Thailand Research Fund.

Janjira Pongrai

The Nation