Masaharu Yagishita

Director, Air Pollution Control Division, Air Quality Bureau, Environment Agency
(1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 Japan)

Abstract

Unregulated hazardous air pollutants have been detected in the air in Japan. There is the danger that exposure to hazardous air pollutants over a long period of time could have an adverse effect on health. In order to prevent this, the creation of comprehensive countermeasures is necessary and urgent. The Japan Environment Agency formed an advisory committee in April 1994 for countermeasures of hazardous air pollutants, drafting a priority list of hazardous air pollutants, carrying out collection and analysis of information on their effects, studying their emission sources and air monitoring, etc. systematically and comprehensively. With these studies, comprehensive hazardous air pollutant countermeasures will be expected to be established in the near future in Japan.

Key words: hazardous air pollutants, long term exposure to low concentrations of pollutants, preventative measures, risk reduction, priority list