Greenpeace Calls for 'Systematic Reform' of China's Chemicals Laws

There is an urgent need for "an integrated and hazard-based approach to chemicals management", concludes Greenpeace in a report published today on the emissions from chemical plants in a major industrial park in China.

In the report, the NGO urges the Chinese government to follow the principles adopted by the Unep ‘Practices in the Sound Management of Chemicals’ at the 2010 Stockholm Convention. This would include pollution prevention, precaution, internationalisation of environmental and human health costs (through 'polluter pays' mechanisms) and ensuring the public’s right-to-know.

The survey of Lianyungang Chemical Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province, found 226 chemicals in air, soil and water samples taken around the park. Sixty one, or roughly a quarter, says Greenpeace, are chemicals with health or environmental hazards. Of these:

55 are in the Chinese government’s 2015 Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals;
four are on the REACH candidate list of substances of very high concern; and
two are in the 'SIN List' produced by the NGO ChemSec.
The chemicals include 16 known and probable human carcinogens and three persistent organic pollutants (POPs), prohibited under both Chinese and international law. Further, Greenpeace’s report says the amount of volatile organic compounds found shows that pollution is current and not historic.

Cheng Qian, deputy head of the toxics campaign at Greenpeace East Asia, said, the plant "is showing shocking negligence towards safety. Workers, public health and the environment are all at serious risk of chemical harm". Mr Qian said that the chemical industry in China has "management that is extremely lax" and urgently requires a sound chemicals management system so that "the industry does not develop as a ticking time-bomb."

Greenpeace says the problems at the site persist, despite there having been a number of high-level inspections and warnings, including at a national level. And that companies operating in the park have accrued almost 200 penalties, due to noncompliance with environmental standards, since it was set up in 2003.

China currently regulates chemical safety under the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), Decree 591, the Regulations on the Safe Management of Hazardous Chemicals in China, and prioritises those chemicals listed in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals.

Revisions to the law, which is particularly complex because ten different ministries are responsible for implementing it, are currently underway; they were expected in 2016.