Plating and Dyeing Industries to Also Recognize 'Grid-Type Footboards and Mobile Collection Facilities'

Ministry of Environment Establishes 'Standards for Handling Facilities of Hazardous Chemicals'

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Environment announced on the 14th that it will enact the 'Standards for Handling Facilities of Hazardous Chemicals' specialized for surface treatment (plating) and dyeing industries, which have a high proportion of small and micro enterprises, and will implement it from March 15.

This industry-specific standard applies to workplaces and processes classified as plating, dyeing processing, fur and leather manufacturing according to the Korean Standard Industrial Classification (Statistics Korea Notice), and that qualify as small and medium enterprises under Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises.

Furthermore, the industry-specific standards apply the handling facility standards under the Chemical Substances Control Act to items such as floor facilities, detection equipment, and collection facilities, tailored to the characteristics of surface treatment and dyeing industry processes.

The current floor facility standard requires a floor structure that prevents water accumulation, but in addition to this method, cases where grid-type footplates are installed so that liquids spilled on the floor are immediately drained and flow into the wastewater treatment plant for processing are also recognized.

Regarding detection equipment, considering that frequent cleaning operations often wet the floor, increasing the possibility of errors in leak detectors installed on the floor, instead of installing leak detectors, leak detection tape is installed at each pipe joint, which is the main source of leaks, and measures such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) or patrol inspections are taken to enable immediate confirmation. Such cases are also recognized as compliant with the standards.

In the surface treatment and dyeing industries, many small-scale workplaces are densely located, making it difficult to prepare separate loading and unloading areas equipped with collection facilities for each workplace. Therefore, the installation and operation of portable collection facilities that can be installed around transport vehicles only during loading and unloading and then dismantled are also recognized, improving on-site compliance for small-scale workplaces while ensuring chemical safety.

The newly announced industry-specific standards can be found on the National Law Information Center and the Chemical Safety Agency websites.

Jo Eun-hee, Director of the Chemical Safety Agency, stated, "By recognizing various facility standard compliance methods that consider industry and process characteristics, on-site safety will be secured while reducing the compliance burden on small and medium enterprises. We will continue to carefully observe the field and communicate to devise various measures that can simultaneously enhance on-site safety and institutional compliance."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.