Publications

By Arpa Wangkiat, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rangsit University, November 2006

The study evaluated variations in elemental compositions of water quality affected by large anthropogenic emission sources in Eastern Thailand: Map Ta Phut Industrial Estates which have housed over 90 industrial facilities including oil refineries, petrochemical and chemical facilities and hazardous waste landfills and treatment facilities. Eighty water samples were collected from water-well of 25 communities in Map Ta Phut during November 2005 and February 2006.

Paper prepared for Asian Public Intellectuals Workshop, 26-30 November 2006. By Penchom Saetang.

This study was conducted between March to June 2006 in Japan with personal interest as Thailand’s industrial development pattern has closely imitated Japan’s. At the same time, the Japanese government and Japanese corporations have interestingly roles in and influence on Thailand’s transformation from an agricultural-based to industrial-based economy. This is seen clearly in development of the Eastern Seaboard Development program (ESB) in the mid-1980s.

Exposing Unsustainable Industries and the Case for Community Right To Know and Prevention [Thailand Bucket Brigade]

By Campaign for Alternative Industry Network (CAIN), Greenpeace Southeast Asia (GPSEA), Global Community Monitor (GCM), October 2005

This report gives fresh evidence that the proposed ‘Community Right To Know Law’ and the ‘National Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) System’ are essentially needed along with better environmental monitoring and direct involvement of affected communities in environmental decision-making with the aim to achieve environmental justice and sustainable society.

By Denny Larson, Global Community Monitor and its National Refinery Reform Campaign, 2005

In the early 1940’s, Richmond, California, became a large hub for shipbuilding as part of the World War II effort. Thousands of African Americans from the South migrated to Richmond to take advantage of the jobs and opportunity. Many settled along the less inhabited areas of the region, mainly near the fencelines of industrial developments. The largest industry was Chevron’s Richmond refinery that occupied over 300 acres in the northeast corner of Richmond. Studies have documented the proximity of African American and people of color neighbors to industrial pollution sources in Richmond.

By Kevin Brigden, Iryna Labunska & David Santillo: Greenpeace Research Laboratories, November 2004

Vinythai and Thai Plastic & Chemicals (TPC) operate separate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturing facilities within the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, in Rayong Province, Thailand.  Canals flow through the estate and receive discharged wastewaters from many facilities prior to discharging into the Gulf of Thailand.  Both PVC manufacturing facilities discharge wastewaters to one of these canals herein referred to as the east canal.  Within the Vinythai and TPC facilities, PVC is produced as well as the raw materials used in its manufacture, namely chlorine, ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).  

By Decharut Sukkumnoed – Kasetsart University, and Penchom Tang – Campaign for Alternative Industrial Network

November 2003

The Eastern Seaboard Development Program” is the most obvious case showing “the Two Sides of the Coin” from the Thai development experience. An issue worthy of a great concern here is that the Thai government still uses this program as the development model for other regions of the country despite serious complaints by the local people on their negative impacts. To develop the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to be a tool or mechanism for influencing the healthy public policy in Thailand, “the Eastern Seaboard Development Program” could be used as one of the inevitable but

Report of the Thai Right to Know Project by Campaign for Alternative Industry Network (CAIN), Greenpeace Southeast Asia, EnLAW, September 2004

Author: Aaron P. Grieser

Citizens in Thailand usually learn about toxic emissions releases after the fact. All too often the paralyzing realization comes as the telltale signs of wildlife and vegetation loss, or ingestion-related illness. In most cases the public simply does not know of their exposure to risk. NGOs, academics and affected citizens in nearly every sector of Thai civil society acknowledge how exclusion from the knowledge-circle cripples their ability to safeguard their environment and the vitality of their communities.

By Masazumi Harada, Department of Social Welfare Studies, Kumamoto Gakuen University, March 2003

Minamata Disease was discovered for the first time in the world at Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1956, and for the next time at Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, in 1965. The both cases were attributed to the methyl mercury that was generated in the process for producing acetaldehyde using mercury as catalyst. Methyl mercury had accumulated in fishes and shellfishes and those who ate them had been poisoned with it. These cases of the poisoning with organic mercury poisoning were the first to take place in the world through the food chain transfer of its environmental pollution. 

Environmental Health Department, Ministry of the Environment, 2002

Minamata Disease, which is a typical example of the pollution-related health damage in Japan, was first discovered in 1956, around Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture, and in 1965, in the Agano River basin in Niigata Prefecture. Since the discovery of the disease, investigation of the cause has been made, and finally in 1968, the government announced its opinion that Minamata Disease was caused by the consumption of fish and shellfish contaminated by methylmercury compound discharged from a chemical plant.

Published by Environment International, 2001

There is increasing concern about the potential neurotoxic effects of exposure to methylmercury for the 6 million people living in the Amazon, even in regions situated far away from the gold mines, considered to be the major source of mercury pollution. In November 1998, a spot investigation on mercury contamination was conducted in three fishing villages on the Tapajos River, an effluent on the Amazon, situated several hundred kilometers downstream from the gold-mining areas.