Title: Country Report
1Country Report
- For training course
- RISK ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
CHEMICALS - by Feng Heng
- Guizhou Research and Designing Institute of
- Environmental Science, China
21.Organization chart of my organization, my
position and functionThe organization I come
from is Guizhou Research and Designing Institute
of Environmental Sciences. It is the exclusive
provincial organization in Guizhou Province,
specialized in the field of studies of
environmental sciences. Our Institute consists of
13 sub-organizations. The sub-organization I come
from is by the name of Advisory Center of
Environmental Sciences and Technologies
3- It principally provide consultancy services of
environmental impacts assessment, cleaner
production auditing, regional and urban
environmental planning, certification of ISO
14001 environmental management system for
clients.
4Organization Chart of Guizhou Research and
Designing Institute of Environmental Sciences
5- As the vice director of this center, my major
responsibilities are fallen on EIA project
management and the technical supervising to
environmental risk assessment of EIA
62. Current status of environmental protection
policy for environmental chemicals and on
management of industrial chemicals including
agrochemicals in China
Generally speaking, the environmental protection
policy system in China consists of the
fundamental law environmental laws for specific
purposes environmental technological policy and
the international environmental conventions in
which China is one of the participants etc.,.
Therefore, major environmental protection
policies for environmental chemicals and on
management of industrial chemicals including
agrochemicals are the following
7 1) Fundamental environmental Laws
Fundamental environmental law in China is
Environmental Protection Law of China, which
was enacted for the purpose of protecting and
improving the living environment and ecological
environment, preventing and controlling pollution
and other public hazards to human health and to
promote the development of socialist
modernization construction. As the fundamental
law, it serves as the base for legislation of
rest of environmental laws including the laws
related with the varied impacts of environmental
chemicals on environment
8 2) Environmental laws for specific purposes
- Environmental laws for specific purposes most
closely related with environmental chemicals and
its management is Solid wastes pollution
control law of China, in which detailed
provisions have been made over the issues such as
utilization, transportation, storage, dispose, of
solid wastes especially the toxic and hazardous
wastes, and the relevant legal liabilities etc.,
within the territory of China. Specific
environmental laws such as Marine environment
protection law of China, Water pollution
control law of China,
9- and Air pollution control law of China,
Environmental impacts assessment law of China
and Cleaner production promotion law of China
specified the control measures, legal liabilities
for pollution of specific environment due to
environmental chemicals, and the EIA for
construction project concerning industrials and
agrochemicals, as well as pushing forward cleaner
production through prohibition or limiting
utilization of hazardous or toxic materials. In
addition, some of non-environmental protection
laws, however, specify the detailed regulations
for management of industrial chemicals and
agrochemicals. These laws include Medicine
management law of China, Food sanitation law of
China etc.,
10 3) Environmental technological policy
- Environmental technological policy concerning the
environmental chemicals is Technological control
policy for hazardous wastes pollution, which
specifies the goals for management of hazardous
wastes, and the technologies selection during the
whole process of production, collection,
transportation, classification, tests, package,
comprehensive utilization, storage, and dispose
of hazardous wastes.
11 4) International environmental
conventions in which China is one of the
participants
- Chinese government always attaches importance on
the pollution control, security and management of
environmental chemicals. For years, China
positively participate the international
cooperation on that respects and fulfill the
relevant responsibilities. Environmental
conventions concerning the environmental chemical
in which China is one of the participants are the
following London Guidelines for the Exchange of
Information on Chemicals in International Trade
(amended in 1989)
12- International Marine Dangerous Goods Code
(International Maritime Organization)
Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of
Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction
(1997) The ILO 1990 Convention on the Safety
of Chemicals at the Workplace (No. 170) Basel
convention on the control of trans-boundary
movements of hazardous wastes and its disposal
The Vienna Convention on the Protection of the
Ozone Layer (1989)
13- United Nations Convention Against Illicit
Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Rotterdam Convention on the Prior
Informed Consent for Certain Hazardous Chemicals
and Pesticides in International Trade (1998)
and Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants.
14- 5)Relevant environmental standards
153. Major problems on environmental contaminants
including pesticides residues, POPs, endocrine
disruptors and heavy metals and/ or management of
industrial chemical and agrochemicals
- Environmental contaminants including pesticides
residues, POPs, endocrine disruptors and heavy
metals can produce serious impacts on environment
and human health characterizing by the long term
retention in environment with low-concentration,
and accumulation and
16- bioaugmentation in human bodies. Meanwhile
these contaminants are given close attention
worldwide. Chinese government also attaches great
importance to this issue and great efforts have
been made to control the impacts of these
contaminants, including the establishment and
improvement of the environmental law and
regulation systems, participation of relevant
international conventions, initiation of
adjustment of industrial structure etc., However,
the problem is still serious while great
achievements is made. Meanwhile, the major
problems can be briefly summarized as following
17- 1)The exceeding of standard of pesticides in
agriculture products caused by irrational
utilization of pesticides takes place from time
to time. This may due to the irrational structure
for pesticides employed, low awareness of farmer,
and the lag-behind agriculture production style. - 2) Pollution of heavy metals caused by
enterprises employing traditional way for
smelting As, Zn, Hg etc., enterprises dealing
with heavy metal mining activities, is still
serious though those backward production
processes have been banned for years. These are
partially because of the special physicochemical
properties of heavy metals and partially because
of historical reason.
18- 3)Great pressure from fulfilling the
responsibilities of elimination of POPs
stipulated in Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants is a great challenge of
Chinese government. At present, 4 of 12 POPs to
be banned are still in production, while the
other 2 are discharged carelessly. The great
difficulties to seek alternatives are to be
overcome by Chinese enterprises producing
relevant products. -
19- 4) For the technical reason, there are still no
efficient measures for the control of impacts of
environmental endocrine disruptors that already
take place. Expect for the above-mentioned
problems, there is still long way to go to
improve the environmental law and regulation
system as well as environmental management
mechanism, and to strengthen the relevant studies
on efficient control measures for pollution of
above-mentioned contaminants, as well as to form
the team of fellow researchers with high
qualities.
204.Regulation of environmental and industrial
chemical in China
- Major regulations of environmental and industrial
chemical in China are the following The
Regulations on the Safe Administration of
Chemicals and Other Dangerous Materials, issued
by the State Council The Regulations for
Implementing the Regulations on the Safe
Administration of Chemicals and Other Dangerous
Materials, jointly issued by the Ministry of
Chemical Industry and the Economic and Trade
Office of the State Council
21- The Rules on the Administration of Toxic
Chemicals Register, issued by the Ministry of
Chemical Industry The Regulations on the
Environmental Management of First Import of
Chemicals and the Import and Export of Toxic
Chemicals ,jointly issued by the SEPA, the
General Administration of Customs and the
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Cooperation The Rules for the Management of
Chemical Production Licenses, issued by the
Ministry of Chemical Industry
22- The Rules for the Granting of Hazardous
Chemicals Distribution Licenses ,jointly issued
by the former Ministry of Commerce, State
Planning Commission, Ministry of Public Security,
State Administration of Industry and Commerce,
State Bureau of Materials and Equipment Supplies
and State Pharmaceuticals Administration The
Rules on the Safety in Use of Chemicals at
Workplace, jointly issued by the Ministry of
Labor and Ministry of Chemical Industry, The
Rules on the Administration of Pollutant
Discharge Declaration and Registration, issued
by the State Environmental Protection
Administration The Rules Concerning
Environmental Pollution Caused in the Production
of Chromium Compounds, issued by the Ministry of
Chemical Industry and the State Environmental
Protection Administration
23- The Regulations on the Administration of
Environmental Protection in Construction
Projects, adopted by the State Council The
Regulations on Control of Dumping Wastes in the
Ocean, issued by the State Council The Interim
Regulations on Environmental Protection
Management of Wastes Imports, jointly issued by
the SEPA, MFTEC, General Administration of
Customs, State Administration of Industry and
Commerce and State Administration for Commodity
Inspection The Rules on Preventing Electrical
Devices Containing Polychlorinated Biphenyles and
Their Wastes from Polluting the Environment,
issued by the SEPA and the
24- Ministry of Energy on January 23, 1991 The
Regulations of the Peoples Republic of China
Concerning the Administration of Civil
Explosives, issued by the State Council The
Rules on Fire Control Supervision and Management
of Inflammable and Explosive Chemicals, issued
by the Ministry of Public Security The Rules of
the Ministry of Railways Concerning the Transport
of Dangerous Goods, issued by the Ministry of
Railways The Regulations Concerning Hygiene
Supervision of Cosmetics, issued by the State
Council The Regulations on the Management of
Pesticides, issued by the State Council The
Regulations for the Administration of Veterinary
Medicines, issued by the State Council
25- The Rules of the Ministry of Railways Concerning
the Transport of Dangerous Goods, issued by the
Ministry of Railways The Regulations Concerning
Hygiene Supervision of Cosmetics, issued by the
State Council The Regulations on the Management
of Pesticides, issued by the State Council The
Regulations for the Administration of Veterinary
Medicines, issued by the State Council The
Rules on the Safe Use of Pesticides, issued by
the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of
Health
26- The Rules for Management on Transportation of
Dangerous Goods by Water, issued by Ministry of
Communications The Regulations on the
Administrative Protection of Agricultural
Chemicals, issued by the State Council Rules
of the Ministry of Chemical Industry for
Implementing the Regulations on the Management of
Pesticides The Rules for Implementing the
Regulations on the Management of Pesticides,
issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and The
Rules for Management on Road Transportation of
Dangerous Goods.
27 5.Management system for environmental and
industrial chemical in China
- The Chinese Government attaches great importance
to the safe management of chemicals, having
formulated a series of laws, regulations and
standards and having adopted rules and methods
concerning chemicals management under the
guideline of safety first, prevention first.
These measures play an active role in effectively
controlling the harm done by chemicals.
28-
-
- Expect the law, rules and regulations, an
effective management system for environmental and
industrial chemicals, integrated with the
management mechanism of production license,
registration, storage and transportation control,
import/export control, for environmental and
industrial chemicals, has come into being. -
296.Major technology for monitoring the
environmental chemicals in China
- Generally speaking, monitoring technologies for
environmental chemicals include sampling
technologies and analytical technologies. Major
sampling technologies varied with the different
environmental media in which sampling is done.
Major sampling technologies for environmental
chemical can be generalized as follow according
to different sampling environmental media
30- 1) Major technologies of air sampling consist of
direct sampling and accumulated sampling. Direct
sampling technologies is suitable for samples
with high concentrations or analytical method
with high sensitivities while accumulated
technologies is suitable for samples with low
concentrations - 2) Water sampling technologies can be generalized
as technologies for surface water and deep water
sampling as well as wastewater sampling. - 3)The staple soil sampling method is sampling
with multiple points and layers etc.,
31- The analytical technologies for environmental
chemicals in China can also be briefly introduced
as follow - 1) atomic absorption spectrometry
- 2) atomic fluorescence spectrometry
- 3)gas phase chromatography
- 4) liquid phase chromatography
- 5) Spectrophotometric method
- 6)colorimetry
- 7)gas phase mass spectrometry
- 8)integrated method of chromatography and mass
spectrometry etc., - Except for the above-mentioned monitoring
technologies, bioassay was also employed for the
ecological monitoring.
327. Outline of my experience on risk assessment
and monitoring of environmental and industrial
chemicals
- My experience on risk assessment of
environmental and industrial chemical is obtained
when I deal with the environmental risk
assessment of EIA projects especially for
projects toxic and hazardous chemicals are
involved, for an instance the projects for
chemical industries, agriculture etc.,
33- Generally speaking the process of risk assessment
can be summarized as following - 1) Identification of key dangerous sources
2)estimation of regular and accidental sources
intensity - 3)prediction the scope and extents of the impacts
of regular and accidental emission according to
the sources intensity and probation of accidental
emission as well as correspondent modeling
4)analysis on the long and short term impacts of
environmental and industrial chemicals on the
sensitive targets (population, animals and
vegetation) exposing to given environmental and
industrial chemicals
34- 5) propose the correspondent control measures for
long term and accumulative adverse impacts and
precaution measure for emergency situation.
358.My purpose to attend in the training course
- My purposes to attend in the training course are
to further develop my understanding over the
characteristics of environmental chemicals such
as pesticides, POPs, endocrine disruptors and
heavy metals etc., the mechanism of their impacts
on environment and human heath, and the
experiences and techniques of developed country
on analysis, monitoring and risk assessment for
such kind of chemicals. All above-mentioned will
benefit to me not only on my present job namely
the environmental risk assessment but also on my
future studies aiming at providing local
government with the technical support for
formulating the policy to control the impacts of
these chemicals on environment and human health.
36Thank you!