Confirming this matter, its director Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar said the three factories were also found to have committed offences under the Environment Quality Act 1974.

‘’The three factories are involved in the handling of chemicals and toxic matter. The ‘stop operation’ order was issued immediately today.

‘’The orders were issued because the factories have the potential to cause air pollution. The stop work order will be in force until they comply with the law,’’ he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

Earlier, Health, Culture and Heritage Committee chairman Mohd Khuzzan Abu Bakar, at a media conference, said: ‘’The DOE has acted to detect and investigate 38 chemical factories for offences under the Environment Quality Act 1974.’’

Other than three “stop operation” orders, DoE issued 27 compound fine notices for scheduled waste offences and 10 compound fine notices for industrial effluence offences.

‘’We conducted this operation for two weeks from the first day the air pollution (June 20) incident was reported.

‘’This operation was carried out comprehensively because we are in the process of determining any factory with the potential to cause pollution,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Khuzzan said that only four victims, including three women, aged 13 to 17, had received treatment at the Sultan Ismail Hospital since June 25 and they are in stable condition.

‘’In addition, the DoE conducted periodical air quality monitoring to detect the presence of gas pollution in the Pasir Gudang area. The air quality reading is good.

“Police will continue 24-hour road blocks in the locations which have been identified as the main access and exit points to Pasir Gudang,’’ he said.

The Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department’s Hazardous Materials Response Team (Hazmat) helped monitor air quality using the gas analyser, Gasmet, over a 13km radius from the first reported incident.