The air quality and commercial marine animals in the sea off Koh Samet’s Ao Phrao and nearby areas have returned to normal and contain no pollution, the director-general of the Disease Control Department said on Sunday.
Speaking in an interview with a radio programme, Dr Pornthep Siriwanarangsan said his department had collected air samples from the areas affected by the July 27 oil spill to monitor the concentration of benzene vapor and effects on human health every day soon after the leak incident.
Latest laboratory tests showed measured levels of benzene in outdoor air contained less than 0.1 parts of benzene per billion parts of air (ppb) (1 ppb is 1,000 times less than 1 ppm). Early tests conducted a few days after the leak indicated relatively high benzene, Dr Pornthep said, but they were still below 0.8 ppb.
He confirmed the air quality had returned to a “normal situation”.
Despite decades of research, scientists say it is still difficult to determine exactly how much benzene in the air will pose long term dangers to human health.
Samples of marine life such as fish, prawns, crabs and shellfish were also found not to contain heavy metal contaminants such as lead at levels that would pose any hazardous health effects, Dr Pornthep added.
“People who are still worried are encouraged to cook their fresh seafood before consumption because this way it will help eliminate heavy metals almost 100 per cent,” the DCD chief said to the Bangkok Post.
