OIL SPILL
Health concerns over Rayong spill
THE NATION



Long-term worries over seafood from contaminated areas

KOH SAMET: -- Public Health concerns have arisen after last weekend's oil spill near Koh Samet over possible short-term hazards to workers cleaning the beach and long-term worries about consumption of seafood harvested from coastal areas adjacent to the tourist island, Deputy Public Health Minister Sorawong Thienthong said yesterday.

A monitoring process for the cleaners' health is underway. A first-aid unit is being set up at the heavily stained Ao Phrao beach to give 24-hour medical care to them, he said. An aid station has been set up at a hospital on Koh Samet, which would constantly monitor toxic substances in urine of all 300 cleaners.

Surveillance of illnesses and monitoring of seawater conditions are also underway and collection of seafood for inspection and verification of their condition is being carried out, said Sorawong, citing a ministry report on health and food-safety concerns associated with the oil leak.

Tests on urine samples have not found any irregularities. Tests will again be conducted in two weeks' time, he said. The detection of heavy metals or anything toxic in their urine would be dealt with seriously, as they could later turn out to be carcinogenic, he added.

More than 70 per cent of the coral reefs near Koh Samet, off the coast of Rayong, have oil stains from the leak. This would take three to 10 years to recover, two senior government officials said yesterday.

Diving to be prohibited

Meanwhile, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said diving would be banned at these coral reefs for a lengthy period. It will discuss the proposal with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, which is authorised to impose such a ban, Marine Department director-general Noppol Srisuk said.

The chief of Khao Laem Ya-Koh Samet Marine National Park, Sumet Saithong, issued a statement that 70 per cent of corals were contaminated with crude-oil stains, after he assigned divers on Wednesday to take underwater photographs in unspecified areas near the tourist island. Pollution Control Department director-general Wichien Jungrungruang estimated it would take more than a decade for the corals to return to normal condition.

Sumet said he had lodged a police complaint citing damage to the park. This is the second complaint after the one lodged with Ban Phe Police Station on Monday, which said crude-oil globules had reached and stained Ao Phrao beach on Koh Samet.

Photojournalists were prohibited from taking photographs of undersea areas with divers assigned by the park chief on Wednesday. Handout shots showed no signs of stains. Sumet said the photos - without showing them to reporters - indicated that 70 per cent of coral reefs adjacent to Koh Samet were stained with small oil particles that had sunk from the surface.

Wichien said it might take three to 10 years for the corals' condition to return to normal. Cleaning and other measures at Ao Phrao and other areas stained by crude or affected by the oil slick would continue until further notice. He said collection of seawater samples would be conducted wherever the oil slick had travelled, to determine the state of the seawater.

-- The Nation 2013-08-02

'Photojournalists were prohibited from taking photographs of undersea areas with divers assigned by the park chief on Wednesday. Handout shots showed no signs of stains. Sumet said the photos - without showing them to reporters - indicated that 70 per cent of coral reefs adjacent to Koh Samet were stained with small oil particles that had sunk from the surface.'

So is there staining or not, not letting them take their own pictures seems suspicious to me?.