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Lynas corporation is building a rare earth plant somewhere near Kuantan, the capital city of Pahang. However, many residents there have protested against the plant due to pollution concerns.

It isn't the first rare earth plant here (ignore the comments, the one thing people on the internet here are good at is being an idiot), but the last one caused all kinds of health issues in the local population and the people here have been bitter about it ever since.

I know that rare earths (am I right?) are important in computer manufacturing, but I'd like more of an explanation about their uses and effects on human health.

Rare earth? Is that like lightly roasted earth?

Jokes aside. I'd like to hear this too.

Rare earths are the lanthanides, scandium and yttrium i.e. chemical elements 21, 39 and 58-71. These elements are relatively rare, hence the name. They are also used in a wide variety of purposes (europium in lighting, neodymium in those ultra-strong magnets). They fill no biological role that I am aware of and as some of them are moderately toxic. I suspect the main environmental an health issue is the fact that lanthanides commonly occur with actinides which are radioactive and that the refining of lanthanide ores uses industrial processes that are not very clean (usually involving sulphuric acid).

The refining process on less controlled countries often just dump untreated/not sufficiently treated waste straight to the closest water body. Rare earth being rare are not dumped, just the waste from the process.