House committee to strategise on industrial accident prevention

The House Committee on Industry is set to convene tomorrow to deliberate on strategies for preventing industrial accidents. This move follows a series of recent warehouse and factory fires, with the most recent one occurring last week at Map Ta Phut Tank Terminal (MTT) in Rayong.

Kamonthas Kittisoonthornsakul, a Move Forward Party (MFP) MP for Rayong and deputy chair of the committee, highlighted the meeting’s agenda to encompass discussions on enhancing safety provisions at industrial sites and deciding rightful compensations for future incidents.

This assembly is triggered by the explosion at MTT’s pyrolysis gas (PYGAS) tank at Map Ta Phut Industrial Park on May 9. The explosion resulted in one casualty and left four people injured.

This incident escalates the count of chemical and industrial fires this year to ten, with five of them happening this month alone. One such instance includes a fire at an abandoned chemical warehouse in Ayutthaya’s Phachi district on May 2.

Kamonthas pointed out certain discrepancies in the environmental evaluations conducted after the Map Ta Phut blast. Focusing on the authorities mistakenly concluded that the explosion didn’t cause considerable pollution due to focusing on the incorrect area.

She criticised the authorities for relying on air quality readings from tambon Map Ta Phut whereas they should have considered the figures from tambon Huai Pong, given the wind direction during the explosion.

She corroborated her argument with the fact that nearly 60 people from the vicinity reported health issues due to the smoke from the explosion and subsequent fire.

Kamonthas advocated for a comprehensive strategy from the province’s administration to tackle pollution-related challenges, given the continuous increase in the number of factories in Rayong since its inclusion in a list of pollution-control areas in 2009.

She suggested improvements in the emergency notification system and implementing a pollution assessment for factories in the province.

On the other hand, former Bangkok Deputy Governor Samart Ratchapolsitte utilised his Facebook account to assert that the country’s pollution laws have been instrumental in preventing such incidents from occurring, reported Bangkok Post.