CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Dominican nuns based in Porac town blamed piggeries in their area for "the unusual number of birth defects and miscarriages."
Sister Jenny Fajardo of the Dominican center in Sinura, Porac said they found several cases of abnormality among children living in their village and other areas near 12 prominent piggeries in Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug Paralaya. Sinura is adjacent to Sta. Cruz.
"We are wondering because the affected people are living beside each and in one neighborhood," said Fajardo, who joined Porac residents in the protest action at the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) office here on Tuesday to press for the relocation of the piggeries mostly owned by Filipino-Chinese businessmen.
Fajardo said they take care of at least 25 special children at their center in Porac. She disclosed that "all of them are suffering from the foul smell emitted by piggeries."
"At least 12 of them have skin diseases which could be caused by the prolong exposure to piggeries. The other have respiratory ailments and other diseases," said Fajardo.
Fajardo dared the piggery owners and EMB officials led by regional director Carlos Magno to "sleep in their center to experience the pain of the foul smell."
She disclosed that they recently had visiting nuns from the United Kingdom who stayed at their center for ten days. All of whom, she added, had complained of the foul smell emitted by the piggeries.
Fajardo said she and others in the center, including her fellow nuns, had been awaken by the foul smell during wee hours in the morning.
She said the "smell had caused severe headache and vomiting."
Fajardo and three other Dominican nuns said the piggeries allegedly dispose their waste in a nearby creek in Sta. Cruz "in an ungodly hour, especially when it’s raining."
Earlier, the Pinoy Gumising ka Movement (PGKM) cited a study stating that long-term exposure to foul smell emitted by piggeries "can cause sudden death."
Quoting a study of the US-based Hilton Kalusche of the Mississippi Safety and Environment Management Office, PGKM’s Sonny Dobles said the piggeries release hydrogen sulfite in the air which instantly enters the body of human beings.
Dobles, head of the PGKM research team, added that the harmful chemical accumulates "in the human body until you die or get sick of various deadly ailments."
Among the diseases caused by hydrogen sulfide are: depresses the nervous systems and respiratory problems.
