Heavy Metals Found in Kelantan Orang Asli Blood, Community Fears It Is Poisoned by Mining

Blood tests on the Temiar community reveal higher than normal levels of chromium. Iron ore mining that turned the rivers red may be the reason.

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Angah Alang, 76, was an adept swimmer and skilled tribesperson, but on July 23, 2015, he died in just three feet of water.

His body was found trapped among logs and shrubbery which rampaged down the river in a flash flood, along with boulders and mountain debris, some 10km downstream from an iron ore mine uphill.

The Orang Asli patriarch’s death in the river he had fished, swam, and bathed in almost all his life, was a terrible shock to the quiet, remote Temiar community of Kampung Kelaik near Gua Musang, who to this day are grief-stricken by the loss.

Now, the community believes that the same waters that killed Alang are leaving them with skin lesions and tainting their food and water sources.

Worse, they fear whatever that has turned the rivers a rusty red, is poisoning them and their children.

Tests on villagers’ blood samples taken by Malaysiakini revealed their fears are not unfounded.

How did chromium get into Azlan's blood?

Chromium is a heavy metal with several variants. One variant - chromium-6 - is sometimes referred to in headlines as the “Erin Brockovich chemical” after it became the subject of the blockbuster film of the same name.

The film told the story of a small town in California, in which residents were disproportionately ill due to chromium pollution in their drinking water source.

Was this also how chromium made it into Azlan’s bloodstream, and were the iron mines the culprit?

Tests conducted by Malaysiakini at the discharge points of the two iron ore mines operating upstream of Kampung Kelaik showed for one of the mines - Aqua Orion - the level of chromium was at 2.6mg/L.

This exceeded the limits allowed by the Department of Environment, said water quality expert Zaki Zainudin, who reviewed the water sample test results. The Department of Minerals and Geosciences does not have a set limit for total chromium, but it sets a limit for two variants of chromium - chromium-6 (0.05mg/L) and chromium-3 (1 mg/L) under the Minerals Development (Effluent) Regulations 2016.

On Zaki’s advice, water samples taken on a subsequent expedition were tested for chromium-6 and chromium-3 separately.

It was found that the sample from a pond where tailing sediments were dumped found elevated levels of both chromium-6 (19.4mg/L) and chromium-3 (34.8mg/L).

The permissible levels by DOE are 1.4mg/L and 2.5mg/L respectively for Class III water sources. Class III refers to rivers that can support aquatic and some human activities with proper treatment.

Effluents from the pond were released into a river, which found its way to Kampung Kelaik - something Zaki said should not happen.

"It is crucial to prevent these elevated levels from entering nearby watercourses, such as rivers and ponds, as they could pose serious health and environmental risks.”

Zaki Zainuddin, Water Quality Expert

Water sampling downstream, where Azlan and other villagers access the river for bathing or fishing found a much lower level of chromium - 0.52mg/L for chromium-3 and less than 0.01 for chromium-6.

But it had rained just an hour before sampling.

“Heavy rainfall could dilute the chromium concentration in the water at the time of sampling,” said chemical health expert How.

“Rain can also wash contaminated sediments from upstream areas into rivers, potentially increasing exposure to heavy metals in direct contact with the water.

“However, this may not reflect in a single water sample taken after dilution effects from rain,” she said.

How said further analysis was required to conclusively link the chromium in Azlan’s blood with pollution in the river but the water and blood data showed it is likely.

"The water data suggested localised contamination near the tailing pond and effluent exit pond, which likely contributed to Azlan’s elevated chromium level.

While the chromium-6 levels at the village swimming site were undetectable, downstream rivers and tailing pond areas have significant contamination, suggesting Azlan’s chromium exposure likely occurred in these areas,”

Vivien How, Chemical Health Assessor

She added that the test results didn’t show high chromium levels in the swimming area due to heavy rain during sampling, which might have masked true contamination.

Asked if the plantations may have also contributed to the chromium contamination, she said that the pesticides used can “seep into the soil, contaminate the water, and further enhance environmental burdens”.

Elevated risk of cancer

How said the findings are red flags, enough to warrant further investigations by relevant authorities, especially due to the severe health implications.

She then estimated Azlan’s lifetime carcinogenic risk (LCR) from his test results. This measures the risk of him developing cancer in his lifetime. She found that it “far exceeded” the normal threshold. How far is that?

“Using Azlan’s exposure data as a reference for the villagers, this suggested a severe risk of developing non-carcinogenic health effects from chromium exposure through prolonged reliance on the river as a water source.

“Potential impacts may include kidney, liver, and respiratory issues over the course of exposure,” she said.

Read Vivien How’s technical report here.

Most exposure to the river

Azlan was the only one among six villagers tested who had higher than normal chromium levels in his blood. How said his result was “worrying”.

Azlan was also the youngest among them, and spent the most time in the river, compared to the other villagers willing to be tested.

“The aluminium, arsenic, and chromium are telling us something… It’s enough to raise concern and bring awareness of this to the relevant parties,” she said.

Blood test results of six villagers

Once a secluded paradise

The Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, which opened in 2004, accelerated the spread of oil palm, rubber, and durian plantations, and the mining operations on their ancestral land.

Before that, this Temiar community of about 200 people lived in seclusion, separate from Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang and without an administrative centre or “post”.

With no electricity or piped water, they drank from clear streams, foraged and hunted for what they needed, and felt little need to venture beyond their homeland. Even the unhurried pace of Gua Musang town was too bustling for them, said Ahak.

Iron ore mining in Kampung Kelaik started in 2009 when Azlan was just four years old.

By the age of five, he was already joining fishing and hunting expeditions, recalled his father, Ahak, who spoke on his behalf because Azlan was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

Today, he visits the water up to three times a week, his father said.

He spends hours at a time in the river, catching fish and frogs, the community’s main source of protein, especially now that wild game has been chased away by widescale deforestation and the sound of heavy machinery from mining activities.

Since the river they used for drinking, bathing, and fishing for generations started turning red, Kampung Kelaik, with the help of the Health Department and NGOs, sourced water from a neighbouring uphill stream. The stream is clear, compared to the rivers downstream from the mines.

But these streams are too small to sustain fish populations, and during heavy downpours, the gravity pipe system and small reservoir built to source water is clogged by debris, cutting water supply, sometimes for days, Ahak said.

The struggle even for the most basic things - water - had worn down the community. They feel they have lost more than just the tranquility of their forest.

“We don’t eat the same foods anymore. We used to grow sugarcane for sweetness, tapioca for its leaves, and cassava, but now we have to buy everything, and it’s all tainted with pesticides. Our freshwater catches, like fish and frogs, don’t even reach adult size. Most of the fish grow only to the size of his palm.”

Ahak Uda, Kampung Kelaik Action Committee Leader

Even the skins of the frogs were stained with a cakey, rusty red film by the time the villagers catch them.

Skin lesions, breathing and neurological difficulties

Like Azlan, those who can’t afford to buy food from outside the village continue to spend hours in the rivers, despite the lesions developing on their skin.

A medical professional who treated some of the villagers for their skin ailments told Malaysiakini she could not rule out the river water as the cause of the contact dermatitis that she saw.

“Lesions usually recover when they avoid contact with the river water and, for the immediate solution, I would suggest rainwater catchment with filters as all gave the history that skin lesions began with contact with river water,” said the doctor, who declined to be identified.

More worryingly, she said some of them complained of having “respiratory and neurological” problems for up to one hour after getting out of the river.

Further tests would be needed to determine if these conditions suffered by Azlan and others like him in Kampung Kelaik are due to chromium poisoning.

Chromium exposure among workers at chrome and steel factories was found to have led to higher rates of lung cancer mortality, according to the US Department of Occupational Safety.

Loophole in the law

While higher than permissible rates of chromium and other heavy metals found near the discharge point at Aqua Orion may appear like a clear violation of the law, Zaki, the water quality expert, said enforcing it might be a challenge.

A loophole in the law allows a licence holder to apply to the director-general for permission to discharge effluent exceeding the standard limit with certain limitations, Zaki said.

Another loophole could be that these two mines, which began operations in 2009 and 2015, may not be required to comply with these regulations, because the current regulations became effective January 2017.

Redstar Capital: We comply to all regulations

The Minerals and Geosciences Department (JMG) has yet to respond to Malaysiakini’s questions on suspected irregularities in the mining at Kampung Kelaik.

However, the department confirmed that Redstar Capital is the contractor responsible for the mining operations under a 20-year lease held by Syarikat Perlombongan Gua Musang Sdn Bhd since 2009.

Aqua Orion, meanwhile, was issued a mining license for 2015 to 2025, the department said.

Redstar Capital administration manager, Julice Chu Lai Siong, defended the company’s practices, and said that media coverage of the issue over the past 10 years had been one-sided.

“We have received questions from the government…Our operations follow the rules,” she said when contacted via telephone.

Responding to Malaysiakini’s email later, she said the mine uses a “closed circuit” and “zero discharge” concept.

“Effluent water will be recycled to be used for mining processing and no effluent water will be released into the river,” she said.

She added that the mine does regular effluent monitoring, and rivers nearby are sampled and sent to the JMG and DOE monthly for checks.

“We will comply with the JMG standard limits of chromium-3 and chromium-6 which are 0.20 mg/L and 0.05mg/L respectively,” she said.

She said Redstar Capital has never received complaints from the community about its operations, and that community patriarch Alang Angah’s death nine years ago was unrelated to its operation. The police case on the matter has also been closed, she said.

Malaysiakini has also contacted the other mine operator Aqua Orion, Syarikat Pelombongan Gua Musang, and the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jakoa) for comment.

We want our land back

Ahak’s voice betrayed the anguish and worry he tried to hide when Malaysiakini called him with the bad news about his son Azlan’s blood test.

With urgency in his voice, he asked if all the villagers could be tested because the river is central to their lives - for fishing, washing, and playing.

“Many others go to the river more often. This is very dangerous, and I’m deeply concerned for their safety.”

When met, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told Malaysiakini his ministry would conduct further testing on the villagers to assess them for heavy metal poisoning, following the high levels of chromium found in Azlan’s blood sample.

Ahak said he was angry and disappointed - with the Kelantan government, the Orang Asli Development Department (Kelaik), Galas assemblyperson Mohd Syahbuddin Hashim, and even the Tok Batin of Kampung Kelaik.

They were all tasked to protect his community, but all of them failed the Temiar community since the loggers first arrived in 2005, Ahak said.

Lawsuit against native land encroachment

Ahak is now even more resolved to see through the community’s civil suit against the Kelantan government and other parties the villagers accused of encroaching into some 8,000 hectares of ancestral land and their way of life.

They have filed a lawsuit against 10 companies, the state government, and three agencies, crowdsourcing legal costs and support.

“We want our ancestral land back. We believe if these operations stop, the land will heal and eventually return to its original state, allowing future generations to thrive here,” Ahak said.

“We are the original people of this land and we have every right to reclaim what is ours.”

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Credits:

Project coordinator & Editor: Aidila Razak
Researcher & Writer: S Vinothaa
Web developer & Designer: Ooi Choon Nam & Amin Landak
Photographers & Videographers: Azneal Ishak, Khoo Shiyuan & S Vinothaa
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