A Map Ta Phut villager shows her allergy-stricken hands. She and other villagers met Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkla yesterday.

Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkla said after visiting the hospital and nearby communities yesterday that he planned to find Bt40 million to move the 30-bed hospital.

Although he did not explain where the budget would come from, Mongkol said he hoped the hospital would be moved to a new site by 2009.

Doctors and staff have appealed for many years for a safer site.

Mongkol said earlier that he could understand why doctors wanted to

distance themselves from the toxic-waste landfill site belonging to Genco

Co in their neighbourhood.

"A young nurse was struck with cancer of the ovary and they [the staff] believe it was associated with pollutants emitted from the factories. For me, it makes sense why they don't want to work there," he said.

Medical examinations have shown that the number of the hospital's doctors and staff with respiratory diseases was higher than at other hospitals, he said.

The hospital last year received Bt20 million from the Rayong governor's CEO budget for the relocation. However,

the amount was only enough to construct a building for the outpatient department.

Dr Surathin Maleehuan, director of Map Ta Phut Hospital, said that at the end of this year the department could move to the new site on Sukhumvit Road, about three kilometres away. He said he had waited for almost a decade for the hospital to be moved away from the industrial complex.

Mongkol also visited victims of cancer and other diseases believed to be caused by emissions from the industrial complex. The villagers told the minister

that they did not want the new phase

of petrochemical development to

be implemented at Map Ta Phut

and also demanded his ministry

take care of their health problems.

Mongkol asked the villagers to write down all their problems and demands together with their ideas on how to deal with the Map Ta Phut industrial complex for him to look at.

The health problems of Map Ta Phut communities have become one of the top priorities of the Public Health Ministry.

Mongkol just recently set up a "war room" to tackle the problem.

Ministry statistics show that 696 in every 1,000 people there have respiratory problems, higher than the countrywide average of only 400 out of every 1,000.

The incidence of cancer and tumours in Map Ta Phut district was rising from 444 cases in every 100,000 people in 1997 to 1,264 cases in 2005.

The rate of children born handicapped or with damaged chromosomes also jumped from 48 cases in every 100,000 in 1997 to 164 in 2005.

Rayong is also listed as the province with the highest frequency of suicides - 72 people out of every 100,000, 11 times higher than the national average.