Xinhua news agency, Beijing, March 30, question: four questions: authoritative interpretation of the Ministry of ecological environment on the treatment of new pollutants

Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Jing

This year's government work report proposes to strengthen the treatment of solid wastes and new pollutants. What are new pollutants? Where is "new"? What is the difficulty in governance? How to exert power? At the press conference held by the Ministry of ecological environment on the 30th, Ren Yong, director of the Department of solid waste and chemicals of the Ministry of ecological environment, explained the treatment of new pollutants.

Q: what are new pollutants?

Ren Yong introduced that from the perspective of improving ecological environment quality and environmental risk management, new pollutants refer to toxic and harmful chemical substances with biological toxicity, environmental durability and bioaccumulation.

These toxic and harmful chemicals have great risks to the ecological environment or human health, but they have not been included in the environmental management or the existing management measures are insufficient.

At present, there are four categories of new pollutants that are widely concerned internationally: one is persistent organic pollutants, the other is endocrine disruptors, the third is antibiotics, and the fourth is microplastics.

Question 2: where are the new pollutants?

Ren Yong said that the reason why the new pollutants are called "new" is, on the one hand, relative to the familiar conventional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides; On the other hand, there are many kinds of new pollutants, which may continue to increase.

He said that with the deepening understanding of the environmental and health hazards of chemical substances and the continuous development of environmental monitoring technology, the number of new pollutants that may be identified will continue to increase.

Question 3: what are the difficulties in the treatment of new pollutants?

The characteristics of new pollutants determine the difficulty of their treatment. Ren Yong said that the new pollutants have five characteristics: first, the harm is relatively serious. New pollutants may be harmful to organs, nerves, reproductive development and other aspects. Their production and use are often closely related to human life, and there are great risks to the ecological environment and human health.

Second, the risks are relatively hidden. The short-term harm of most new pollutants is not obvious, but once their harm is found, the pollutants may have entered the environment through various channels.

Third, environmental sustainability. Most of the new pollutants have environmental persistence and bioaccumulation, which are difficult to degrade in the environment and easy to accumulate in the ecosystem, and can be accumulated in the environment and organisms for a long time.

Fourth, it has a wide range of sources. China is a large country in the production and use of chemical substances. There are tens of thousands of new chemical substances in production and use, and thousands of new chemical substances are added every year. The production and consumption of these substances may have environmental emissions.

Fifth, governance is complex. For new pollutants with persistence and bioaccumulation, even if they are discharged to the environment at low doses, they may endanger the environment, biology and human health, and require high treatment level.

He pointed out that the new pollutants involve many industries, the industrial chain is long, and it is difficult to research and develop substitutes and alternative technologies. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out coordinated governance by multiple departments and cross fields, and implement environmental risk management and control throughout the life cycle.

Question 4: how can new pollutants be treated?

Ren Yong introduced that the general idea of new pollutant treatment is to screen and evaluate the environmental risks of toxic and harmful chemicals, and "screen" and "evaluate" new pollutants that need to be controlled. Then, the whole process control of key new pollutants will be implemented, including the prohibition and limitation of the source of production and use, the process emission reduction and the end treatment.

The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the treatment of new pollutants. In recent years, the Ministry of ecology and environment, together with relevant departments, has promoted the establishment of a regulatory and standard system, strengthened the source access management, promoted the environmental risk management and control of toxic and harmful chemicals, and actively participated in the chemical compliance actions, laying a good foundation for the treatment of new pollutants.

In his view, the development of new pollutant treatment is an inevitable result of the in-depth advancement of the pollution prevention and control battle, and an inherent requirement in the process of continuous improvement of ecological environment quality. The Ministry of ecology and environment, together with relevant departments, is studying and formulating the action plan for the treatment of new pollutants, putting forward the overall requirements, main objectives, action measures and guarantee measures for the treatment of new pollutants in China during the "14th five year plan".