Osami Nakasugi

National Institute for Environmental Studies
(16-2, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0053 Japan)

Abstract

Several countries in the OECD have established or are developing a PRTR system. To implement the OECD Council recommendation, a pilot study of PRTR systems is being carried out in Japan. In this system industrial facilities are required to report the volume of selected 178 toxic chemicals which are released to air, water and soil and transfered to off-site location for disposal. The volume of chemicals which are released and transfered from small and diffuse sources, are estimated by governmental offices. For risk reduction of POPs which are accumulated in the environment, the reduction of emission volume is more important than the reduction of emission concentration. Therefore, the PRTR system is a useful strategy for risk reduction of POPs. But, most POPs are released by unintentionally by various human activities, so emission sources must be identified beforehand.

Key words: PRTR, POPs, risk management, self-imposed control