'Dust showers' defeat health officials

'Dust showers' defeat health officials

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Air pollution in a residential area near Pulo Gadung industrial
estate is severe, with residents experiencing respiratory and
skin problems, said officials at a community health center
(Puskesmas) in Rawa Terate subdistrict, East Jakarta.

The pollution is so bad that medical workers at the Puskesmas
can only bear to work up until about 12 p.m. every day, whereas
their workday is supposed to end at 4 p.m., said dentist Kiki
Berliana, the acting head of the clinic.

There are at least five steel casting companies and a chemical
processing factory surrounding the subdistrict, and almost all of
them shower the area with metal particles and sometimes sulfuric
dust, she told The Jakarta Post last week.

"We keep all the doors and windows in the building closed to
prevent the dust from entering," she said.

The clinic stands between PT Mahkota Indonesia, a chemical
corporation that produces sulfuric acid, aluminum sulfate and
sodium silicate, and PT Wahana Garuda Lestari, a steel casting
factory.

She said, however, that no matter how hard clinic staff tried,
they could not keep the dust out. She showed the Post some
yellowish brown dust that she wiped from the floor, which had
been mopped four hours earlier.

"Seven officials, including myself, suffer from this dust,"
said the dentist, who has worked there since 1997.

Berliana has asthma and often has attacks because of the dust.
Meanwhile, her subordinate, Masniari, 42, suffers skin ailments
due to the dust.

Ros, 27, another subordinate who lives next to the clinic,
escapes the dust every weekend by staying at her brother's house
in Depok. She cannot stand the dust, although she has not
suffered any ailment as yet.

Berliana said that the number of cases of upper respiratory
infection and skin allergies was very high in Rawa Terate
subdistrict, and they are all triggered by the air pollution.

She said there were at least 5,778 cases of upper respiratory
infection in 2001 in Rawa Terate subdistrict, which had a
population of 18,549 residents that year.

"The worse cases happen in RT 10 RW 05, better known as
Kampung Sawah, where every day a steel casting factory disperses
smoke straight to some 500 residents there," she said.

She said that in a monthly immunization program, medical
workers have trouble giving shots to children, as the syringes
repeatedly get contaminated by the yellowish brown dust emitted
by PT Jakarta Cakratunggal Steel Mills.

Tjandra Yoga, a pulmonologist from Persahabatan Hospital in
Rawamangun, East Jakarta, said that such air pollution would at
least trigger various respiratory diseases, like asthma or
tuberculosis, depending on the person.

He said that the smoke could also cause other complex
illnesses, but it depended on the particles contained in the
dust.

"There should be a test to examine what particles are
contained in the air around the area before we can determine what
illnesses they may cause," he told the Post.

According to the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency
(BPHLD), particulate matter or any type of solid in the air such
as smoke, dust and vapor that remain suspended for extended
periods can cause cancer and bronchitis.

Meanwhile, sulfur dioxide (SO2) can cause pulmonary disease,
from breathing problems to permanent lung damage.