Seoul City, 21 People Criminally Charged for Failing to Self-Monitor Air Pollutants

Some Businesses Rely on Measurement Agencies, Resulting in Omission of Measurement Items and Frequencies
2021 Air Emission Facilities in Seoul Comply with Self-Measurement Obligations... From Weekly to Semiannual Measurements

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 26th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Civil Life Judicial Police Unit announced that it has booked 21 business operators of air emission facilities, including plating companies, for violating the obligation to periodically measure the concentration of pollutants emitted.

Business operators permitted (or registered) as air pollutant emission facilities are required to conduct self-measurements to verify whether air pollutants are properly treated by prevention facilities, but they failed to comply with this obligation.

The businesses booked this time did not perform self-measurements due to reasons such as poor business performance despite receiving guidance on the self-measurement obligation from the local district office, or entrusted measurement to agencies lacking the capability to measure certain emitted substances, resulting in omissions in measuring those substances.

Regulations on emitted pollutants have been strengthened due to increased environmental concerns caused by fine dust occurring regardless of season, frequent abnormal weather, and respiratory diseases. Previously, failure to perform self-measurement was subject to fines, but with the amendment and enforcement of the Air Quality Preservation Act, from this year, violators will face criminal penalties (imprisonment of up to 5 years or fines up to 50 million KRW).

Air pollutant emission businesses must measure emitted dust, nitrogen oxides, etc., at frequencies ranging from up to once a week to at least once every six months depending on the business scale (types 1 to 5), and preserve the results. Seoul has a total of 2,021 air emission businesses, most of which are small-scale businesses (types 4 and 5) such as boiler installations inside buildings and automobile painting facilities, and are required to perform self-measurements at least once every six months. However, if specific hazardous air pollutants are emitted, self-measurements for those pollutants must be conducted at least twice a month regardless of business scale.

Business operators intending to install and operate air emission facilities must obtain the relevant permits (including change notifications), verify the normal operation of prevention facilities, and conduct periodic self-measurements of emitted pollutants, requiring meticulous management to reduce air pollution.

Choi Han-cheol, Head of the Civil Life Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Civil Life Judicial Police Unit, said, “Managing air pollutants is essential for the health and safety of citizens,” and added, “We will continue to investigate not only pollutant emission businesses but also measurement agencies to improve air quality.”

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