The Ministry of Environmental Protection’s public release of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Chemical Environmental Risk Prevention and Control” (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) shows that the situation of chemical pollution prevention and control in my country is grim.
Toxic chemicals eliminated by developed countries are still used in our country. Some toxic and harmful chemicals that have been eliminated or restricted in developed countries are still produced and used on a large scale in my country. The relevant national departments do not know the types, quantities, industries, and geographical distribution of chemicals produced and used.
There are more than 40,000 chemical substances recorded in production and use in my country, of which more than 3,000 have been listed in the current "List of Hazardous Chemicals" and have properties such as poisoning, corrosion, explosion, combustion, and combustion-supporting properties. Chemicals with acute or chronic toxicity, bioaccumulation, non-degradability, carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, mutagenicity and other hazards are seriously harmful to human health and the ecological environment. Dozens of them have been listed as strictly prohibited by relevant international conventions on chemicals. Substances that are restricted and need to be phased out. At the same time, the hazardous characteristics of a large number of chemical substances have not yet been clarified and understood.
The basic information and risks of chemical environmental management are unknown. “According to the results of environmental risk and chemical inspections in three key industries across the country, including petroleum processing and coking, chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, organized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2010, there are Enterprises with water environment protection targets accounted for 23% of the number of surveyed enterprises, posing a threat to environmentally sensitive points such as basic farmland, drinking water source protection zones, and water intakes of water plants; 51.7% of enterprises with atmospheric environment protection targets were distributed within 1 kilometer of the surrounding area. %, 15,000 enterprises are surrounded by residential areas, posing a hazard to human health and safety. After preliminary assessment, the number of enterprises with major environmental risks accounted for 18.3% of the number of enterprises surveyed, and enterprises with relatively large environmental risks accounted for 22%. Potential environmental risks are prominent .” The plan mentioned that the regulations and systems for environmental management of chemicals are not sound. The current system for environmental management of chemicals mainly focuses on the registration of import and export of toxic chemicals and the environmental management registration of new chemical substances. However, there is a lack of regulations on the environmental management of hazardous chemicals, release and transfer control, and management of key environmental risk sources. There is a lack of measures to restrict the production and use of toxic, refractory, and highly environmentally hazardous chemicals, and there is an obvious lack of targeted and systematic chemicals environmental management regulations, systems, and policies.
The basic information and risks of chemical environmental management are unknown. Relative to the environmental management needs of chemicals, my country currently has unclear information on the types, quantities, industries, and geographical distribution of chemicals produced and used, unclear types, quantities, scales, and distribution of major environmental risk sources, and unclear environmental hazards of most chemical substances. , The emission quantity and pollution situation of toxic and harmful chemical pollutants are unclear, the transfer status of chemical substances is unclear, and the distribution of affected ecological species and populations is unclear. Compared with developed countries, there is still a large gap in my country's awareness, level, and capabilities of chemical environmental risk prevention and control.
The plan points out that in recent years, a variety of chemical substances have been detected in some rivers, lakes, offshore waters, wild animals and human bodies in my country. The concentrations of persistent organic pollutants and endocrine disrupting substances in some areas are higher than international levels, and toxic and harmful chemicals cause There have been many acute water and atmospheric environmental emergencies, drinking water crises have occurred in many places, and serious health and social problems such as "cancer villages" have even appeared in some areas.
The plan states that approximately thousands of new chemical substances are declared for production and import in my country every year, and the hazards they cause to human health and environmental safety are not yet fully understood. Environmental management and risk prevention and control face great pressure and challenges.
The plan points out that based on the different sources and types of environmental risks, 58 chemicals (categories) of three types are identified as key environmental risk prevention and control objects during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period; during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, petroleum processing, coking and Six major industries including the nuclear fuel processing industry and new coal chemical industries such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-natural gas are key prevention and control industries. ▲
