Worries mount over Jakarta's air pollution

JAKARTA (JP): A legislator urged the ministry of health on Saturday to announce the results of its research on diseases caused by heavy vehicular emission in major cities like Jakarta.

Legislator Soegijatno Soesilo said that the ministry should send the research results to the police headquarters in Jakarta, which is particularly anxious to learn about the impact of gas emissions on its traffic officers on duty.

Soesilo, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission VIII which oversees health, told Antara that traffic gridlock is dangerous for the health of police officers who are there for hours every day.

The worries about the effect of vehicular gas emissions on traffic police officers was aggravated by a recent report from Thailand. The media reported that a Bangkok traffic policeman died from illness caused by appalling air pollution, and one of his colleagues was sick with unusually high levels of lead in his bloodstream.

Thai Staff Sergeant Amnuay Soonjin died late last month in a hospital's intensive care unit after suffering from severe chest pains and leg cramps. He had also been coughing heavily and vomiting blood.

Amnuay spent two years directing traffic in a Bangkok street where air is thick with vehicle emissions, particularly at rush- hour. During that time he developed respiratory trouble and lung inflammation.

While Staff Sergeant Thira Narasri, who directed traffic in the same zone as Amnuay, was recently diagnosed with high levels of lead in his bloodstream and has since been moved to administrative duty.

A respiratory expert with Thai Police General Hospital said that a study conducted in 1991 showed that 805 of Bangkok's 3,500 traffic policemen were suffering from pollution-related diseases.

Another traffic police sub-lieutenant died a few years ago from inhaling excessive amounts of vehicle exhaust.

Air samples on Bangkok streets in January indicated carbon monoxide levels of 22 parts per million, near the 30 parts per million danger-level by international standards.

Although the status of carbon monoxide in Jakarta is unknown, it's strongly believed that it is around the levels recorded in Bangkok.

In many of the world's most populated cities like Bangkok and Jakarta, the air is known to have been contaminated with a host of pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, lead and dust.

Jakarta has a total of 2,356 traffic policemen and 2.7 million vehicles. Bangkok has 3.5 million vehicles.

The case of the two traffic policemen in Bangkok was discussed in a monthly meeting of all senior ASEAN police officers at the Jakarta police headquarters recently. Many police officers are worried about the health of the city traffic policemen as they are yet to be equipped with air-filter masks.

House member Soesilo also urged the government to raise the meal allowances and incentives for traffic police to better their health status.

He also suggested the national police force, which is going to celebrate its 49th anniversary on July 1, shorten the duty hours of traffic police officers.(bsr)