Environmental Management Bureau experts will check the extent and gravity of the volatile organic compound (VOC) emission from the fuel leak reported last week at a Phoenix Petroleum gasoline station in Makati City.
“We’ll check the level of the VOC emission there and in the immediate vicinity,” EMB senior environmental management specialist, Benny Murillo, said in an interview Monday.
Murillo said readings of EMB’s instruments would show if the VOC emission level was already harmful to health or pollute the environment as these substances mix with air.
He advised people to stay away from the gasoline station and its vicinity in the meantime as a precaution.
Murillo also urged people residing near the area to remain inside their houses as much as possible while authorities and Phoenix were dealing with the leak.
The National Institutes of Health said VOCs could enter the body when people either inhaled them or touched fuel, solvents and other products that contained and released these substances.
It said exposure to VOCs might cause eye, nose or throat problems, and headaches, as well as damage to the liver, kidney or central nervous system, while long exposure might cause cancer.
When VOCs combine with nitrogen oxides in the air, they form smog that pollutes the air, making it difficult for some people to breathe, the NIH said.
Earlier, the Makati City government said siphoning stored fuel was among the interventions done after the leak’s discovery.