EIA Legislation in Malaysia

The prescribed activity can only carried out once EIA  is approved by the DG

Panalties:

Fine RM100,000 and/or 5 years jail

RM1,000 per day the offence is continued after  notice by DG

Long term mobileuse and the risk of brain cancer

Using mobile phones for more than 10 years doubles the risk of brain cancer, newspapers reported. They suggest that the risk may be greater in children whose thinner skulls and developing nervous system make them more vulnerable.

The Daily Mail reported that “researchers found that long-term users had double the chance of getting a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they held the handset”.

The stories are based on a review of studies that looked at the difference in mobile phone usage between people with and without brain tumours for more than a 10 year period.

The authors found 11 studies on people who had used mobile phones for more than a decade. Some of these showed that mobile phone use significantly increased the risk of some types of brain cancer while others did not.

Further perspective is given to this by data from Cancer Research UK, which suggests that “brain tumours” are rare and occur in less than seven in 100,000 people.

Contrary to newspaper reports, this review did not find that children are at greater risk of cancer from mobile use. The review did not look specifically at children and it would not be possible to come to this conclusion. These headlines originated from a comment by one of the authors.

However, the Stewart Report, a government sponsored independent review, recommended in 2004 that the use of mobiles by children should be minimised as a precautionary measure. This recommendation is endorsed by the findings from the 2007 MTHR Report, which found that although there was no evidence that mobile phones were associated with adverse effects in adults, further research is still needed for their use by children, and for their long-term use by adults. Proposals for the MTHR 2 study that begins in 2008 include epidemiological studies of the risk of brain tumours in children.

read more...

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2007/October/Pages/Longtermmobileuseandtheriskofbraincancer.aspx

Environmental Auditing in Environmental Management Plan

The ISO 14010 standard defines an environmental audit as;

"Systematic, documented verification process of objectively obtaining and evaluating audit evidence to determine whether specified environmental activities, events, conditions, management systems or information about these matters conform with audit criteria, and communicating the result of this process to the client"

The key elements in the environmental audits includes
- systematic
- documented
- verification process
- objective
- evaluating audit evidence
- activities, events, conditions, standards, EMP specification- communication of results

Environmental Auditing (compliance) is a key 'checking' step to ensure that the project proponent and contractors implement and adhere to the environmental requirement specified in the EMP. Typical audit criteria include:

a- EIA approval conditions by DOE, NREB, contract tender specifications
b- Standars and guidelines enforced by DOE
c- Other requirements, policy, ets

The Environmental auditing procedures should be in line with the requirements of ISO 14000 standards. The approach typically involves:
- Document review
- site inspection
- interviews

This typically covers
- monitoring data
- minutes of meetings
- correspondence with DOE
- latest site drawings
- project schedule updates
doe

List of Prescribed Activities (Extract from the Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities)(EIA)Order 1987)

1. Agriculture
2. Airport
3. Drainage and Irrigation
4. Land Reclamation
5. Fisheries
6. Forestry
7. Housing
8. Industry ; chemical, Petrochemicals, Non-ferrous, Aluminum, Copper' Other ( Non metallic, iron and steel, shipyards, pulp and paper, industry)
9. Infrastructure
10.Ports
11.Mining
12. Petroleum
13. Power Generation and Transmission
14. Quarries
15. Railways
16. Transportation
17. Resort and Recreational Development

Sarawak's Natural Resources and Environment (Pescribes Activities) Order 1994

Sarawak's Natural Resources and Environment, Order 1994 makes it mandatory for project proponents and/or developers to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on activities having impact on the environment and natural resources.

The following activities, which are the Prescribed activites contained in the First Schedule of the Order require the conduct of EIA

1. Agriculture Development
2. Logging
3. Development of Commercial Industrial Housing Estates
4. Activities Which May Pollute Inland water or Affect Sources of Water Supply
5. Fisheries and Activities Which May Endanger Marine or Aquatic Life, Plants in Inland Waters or Erosion of River Banks
6. Extension and Removal of Rock Materials and Mining
7. Any Other Activities Which May Damage or Have an Adverse Impact on quality of Environment or Natural Resources of the States