Changes in risk in medium business plating and paint manufacturing plants following the revision of the korean chemical accident prevention system

Hyo Eun Lee, Min Gyu Kim, Seok J. Yoon, Da An Huh, Kyong Whan Moon

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Chemical accidents can occur anywhere. The need for chemical management in Korea was realized following the 2012 Gumi hydrofluoric acid accident in 2012. The Chemicals Control Act was enacted in 2015. This system evaluates the risks (high, medium, low) and consequent safety management at all plants that handle hazardous chemical substances. However, the system was criticized as excessive when most plants were designated high-risk without considering their size. Thus, laboratories and hospitals handling very small quantities were subject to regulation. Accordingly, in 2021 Korea revised the system to include off-site consequence analyses and a Korean-style risk analysis. Plants handling very small quantities, such as laboratories and hospitals, were exempt from regulation. In this study, changes in risk were examined for four medium-sized plating and paint manufacturing plants. Under the previous system, all four factories were judged as high-risk groups. In particular, the paint manufacturing plant A, which has an underground storage tank, received a medium risk like the plating plant C, although the possibility of a chemical accident was lower than that of other plants. However, in the changed system, all plants were changed to the low-risk group. In the Korean-style risk analysis, it is possible to see at a glance what is lacking in the plants, such as cooperation between local residents and local governments and the construction of safety facilities according to the type of accident scenario. The revised system is a reasonable regulation for medium business plants.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number11982
    JournalInternational journal of environmental research and public health
    Volume18
    Issue number22
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Nov 1

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Keywords

    • Chemicals control act
    • Paint manufacturing plant
    • Plating industry plant
    • Preparation of off-site consequence analyses
    • Risk assessment

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Pollution
    • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
    • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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