‘A Beautiful Environment
and Healthy Future’
Environment Ministry will introduce a system for reducing total air pollution emissions in Seoul Area Effective in December.
The government will enforce a total air pollution load management system in the Seoul Metropolitan area in November in a bid to reduce air pollution emissions. As a result, starting in July of next year, businesses in the area surpassing the permissible levels will face restrictions on facility expansion and construction of new plants.
Environment Minister Lee Jae-yong disclosed these and other ministry policies during his report to President Roh Moo-hyun on February 13. Minister Lee disclosed five goals and 23 implementation tasks his ministry will carry out during 2006 to the extent that people can sense an environmental improvement.
The Total Air Pollution Load Management System in the Seoul Metropolitan area will be introduced starting in December. Under the system, Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province will be required to set its own allowable air pollution emissions. The system is designed to put restrictions on air pollution emissions according to each industrial category of businesses.
The Total Maximum Daily Load Management System will be expanded to cover five city and county districts at the upstream of the Paldang Reservoir northeast of Seoul which is a main tap water resource for the Seoul Metropolitan area.
The government will introduce a program for setting greenhouse gas emission amounts of cement, chemicals and paper plants and reporting their reports of emissions. The system is also designed to arrange a roadmap for reducing carbon dioxide amounts for four industrial fields, including the power generation industry.
In the report to President Roh, dubbed "A Beautiful Environment and Healthy Future,"the Environment Ministry will implement a wide range of policies designed to promote the environmental health of those who are susceptible to environment pollution. It is noteworthy that the ministry's report contains steps to protect children and others sensitive to environment pollution.
The ministry will develop a warning system recommending pregnant mothers and children's allowable mercury intake levels while developing a regular monitoring system on the damages children suffer from harmful substances. Initially, the ministry will conduct a survey into about 1,000 pregnant mothers and children susceptible to environmental pollution to determine whether they come down with asthma and other diseases related to growth development impediment. The monitoring system calls for restricting or banning substances considered harmful to the health of children and conducting a fact-finding survey into chemicals on playgrounds that children have exposure.
The ministry plans to strengthen surveillance into harmful substances around living quarters while increasing restrictions of the quality of indoor air to minimize the hazards of public health. Privately-run nurseries will be subject to surveillance into the quality of indoor air as they are put on a list of "multitude use facilities."The ministry will arrange countermeasures on air control of such mass transportation means like a high-speed railway system KTX and subways.
A ministry official said the ministry will seek to enact a special law governing the management of such residual organic substances as dioxins, representative toxic chemicals in a bid to improve the public health. The ministry will conduct a survey of 4,000 transformers and condensers to determine whether people in such facilities as schools and hospitals across the nation are exposed to PCBs with the goal of removing such harmful substances from the facilities by 2015, he said.
GLOBAL CHEMICALS MANAGEMENT ― Over 100 environment and health ministers agreed on a new global initiative aimed at making chemicals safer for humans and the planet at an international conference in Dubai on February 7. Ko Jae-young, chief of Environment Policy Office at the Environment Ministry, headed the Korean delegation to the conference.
The 9th Special Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program/Global Ministerial Environment Forum approved the initiative, called "The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management or SAICM."The new initiative covers risk assessments of chemicals and harmonized labeling up to tackling obsolete and stockpiled products. It also carries provisions for national centers aimed at helping countries, especially in the developing world, train staff in chemical safety including dealing with spills and accidents.
Kim Hyo-jung, an official at Environment Health Policy Department at the Ministry of Environment acknowledged that the participants focused on the agreement of the master plan on chemical safety during the just-end conference, but not on the specifics.
The details of the initiative will be discussed during the Inter-Government Forum on chemical Safety to be held in September, she said. nw