Nakdonggangcheong Creates Safe Communities from Chemical Accidents

Published 26 Apr.2023 10:56(KST)

Updated 07 Aug.2025 14:04(KST)

Changwon National Industrial Complex Holds Launch Ceremony for 'Valps Plus(+) Chemical Safety Campaign'

The Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office of the Ministry of Environment held a launch ceremony for the ‘Valves Plus (+) Chemical Safety Campaign’ targeting the Changwon National Industrial Complex in Gyeongnam on the 25th at the main auditorium of the headquarters.

About 50 executives and practitioners from 22 hazardous chemical handling workplaces in the Changwon National Industrial Complex participated in this campaign.

The ‘Valves Plus (+) Chemical Safety Campaign’ expands the existing promotion- and guidance-centered Valves safety campaign to an autonomous equipment responsibility system, where persons in charge of high-risk vulnerable equipment are designated and managed at the workplace.

Changwon National Industrial Complex 'Valps Plus(+) Chemical Safety Campaign' Launch Ceremony. [Image provided by Nakdong River Authority]

Participating workplaces designate managers responsible for hazardous chemical handling facilities and submit excellent improvements and corrective actions from weekly self-inspections of handling facilities, as required by Article 26 of the Chemical Substances Control Act, to the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office three times over six months.

‘Valves’ refers to auxiliary equipment such as valves, flanges, and switches, which have a high risk of accident occurrence.

Through the launch ceremony, the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office expects this to be a turning point in preventing chemical accidents in advance by establishing a safety management foundation for auxiliary equipment such as valves, flanges, and switches, which are major causes of chemical accidents, through cooperation between the public and private sectors in the Changwon National Industrial Complex.

Workplaces selected as excellent and exemplary cases in the campaign will receive incentives such as awards from the Minister of Environment and the head of the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office, as well as reductions in fines.

In addition, excellent cases such as safety management know-how for chemical handling facilities will be used as promotional materials for chemical accident prevention.

Director Hong Dong-gon said, “I hope that the public and private sectors will join hands and work hard to create a safe community free from chemical accidents.”