By Na Jeong-ju
Manufacturers and importers of more than 1 ton of chemicals deemed to pose risks to people and the environment will be obliged to report them to the government every two years, the Ministry of Environment said Tuesday.
In addition, those involved in the production, sale and circulation of unregistered chemicals will face a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to 100 million won.
These measures were included in a bill on the registration and monitoring of chemicals the ministry submitted to the National Assembly.
The ministry will strengthen monitoring of toxic chemicals used by firms and households. Authorities will be able to ban the sale and import of chemicals and chemical products, if necessary, based on evaluations of their risks.
The move came amid growing public anger over the government’s alleged mishandling of a chemical leak from a factory in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, which has damaged the ecosystem of nearby villages. Thousands of residents and factory workers are suffering from rashes, headaches and respiratory diseases following the Sept. 27 leak of hydrofluoric acid following an explosion. The government designated affected areas as a special disaster zone on Monday.
The ministry itself has been under fire for poorly monitoring manufacturers of toxic chemicals. It will inspect all chemical plants nationwide to prevent such an incident from occurring again, officials said.
Production and circulation of chemicals are governed by the Law on Management of Harmful Chemical Substance, which was enacted in July 2011. Under the law, chemical firms don’t necessarily have to report risks of existing chemicals to authorities. Only chemicals that have been registered since then are currently monitored by authorities.
Due to the legal loophole, about 86 percent of some 43,000 chemicals and chemical products are being circulated without being monitored, officials said.
The ministry said it is pushing for a separate law to strengthen supervision of producers of chemicals that are deemed “extremely hazardous” to humans and the environment.
After the leak in Gumi, firefighters failed to use calcium hydroxide, a neutralizing agent for hydrofluoric acid, in the initial stages and the local authorities were slow to evacuate factory workers and residents. A danger warning was lifted too early, only a day after the spill, without properly assessing the damage.
There has been a series of fatal explosions at chemical factories.
About a month earlier, a drum containing dioxane exploded at a LG Chem factory in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, killing eight workers. There were two such accidents last year.