VietNamNet Bridge – Local authorities admitted that the carpenter’s shops in the localities are causing environmental pollution. However, they said that if the workshops are forced to shut down, they will incur losses, while local residents will lose their jobs.
 
The story began from the fact that in late June 2011, 33 students of the Dinh Xuyen Primary School in Gia Lam district in Hanoi were forced by the teachers to stay out in the sun for two hours, just because they joined the meeting to promote environmental protection.
 
Local residents have pointed out that the school’s decision to punish students should be seen as an action of “taking revenge” for the owners of the carpenter workshops, which were forced to stop production because the workshops caused environmental pollution.
 
Workshops operated without environmental impact report
 
In the letter of denunciation sent to competent agencies, local residents said that since 2004, a lot of plywood workshops were established. All the workshops used a kind of glue which was made of urea and formaldehyde imported from China.
 
The production area is located in a local residential area which is adjacent to 40 households.
 
According to the local residents, there are clear signs showing that the 10 workshops violate the law on environment protection. They ran workshops even when they had not had the reports on possible environmental impacts. They deliberately used the glue made of formaldehyde, and deliberately let the hazardous waste to the environment
 
Nguyen Duy Thong, a local resident, said that the intensive operation of the workshops has made the residential area become seriously polluted, thus badly affected people’s health. Local residents have recently suffered the symptoms such as dry cornea, chest tightness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, asthma, acute and chronic inflammation of life, fetal toxicity, premature birth, birth defects, or leukemia.
 
Nguyen Thi Luu, the owner of a workshop in the area, admitted that her workshop became operational even though she did not have the certificate on environmental safety. Explaining this, Luu said that at first, her workshop was small and she only purchased more machines to run production later.
 
“We are farmers, and we do not know what we should do when we set up production and business,” Luu said.
 
When asked if she knows that the workshop causes the environmental pollution, Luu said that the pollution is inevitable, because even honeycomb coal stove can cause pollution. However, she does not think that local residents have suffered diseases from the workshops.
 
Of the 10 workshops, only the one of Nguyen Huu Manh has an activated carbon tank which helps treat waste. However, the tank alone cannot eliminate all of the toxin.
 
No operation, no money
 
Nguyen Quang Tinh, Deputy Chair of the Dinh Xuyen Commune said he has asked the workshops to halt operation for 20 days and upgrade machines.
 
“Active changes have been recognized at the workshops after the days,” Tinh said. Especially, the workshops have been strictly following the deodorization process.
 
When asked why he did not tell the workshops to stop operation until they can get environmental safety certificates, Tinh said that the workshops bring 1000 jobs to local residents, and in order to help local residents earn money, the local authorities have to allow the workshops to resume the production.
 
Several days ago, when the workshops had to halt production for 20 days, the local authorities received the complaint from 300 workers, who asked to continue production. The workers said that if shutting down the workshops, they will lose jobs and cannot earn their livings.
 
Tinh also denied the fact that the workshops caused serious diseases to local residents, saying that the diseases were caused by the match production workshops, because sulphur is much more dangerous to human health.
 
Source: VTC