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U.N. recommends factory checks in report on China toxic spill+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BEIJING, Jan. 12_(Kyodo) _ A U.N. agency that inspected a river in northeastern China contaminated by a toxic spill in November recommends that China take new measures to prepare local communities for disasters and randomly check factories for safety hazards, the agency said in a statement Thursday. The U.N. Environment Program issued a report based on its Dec. 9-16 visit to the Songhua River at the invitation of the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration. On Nov. 13, a factory explosion in the city of Jilin sent 100 tons of carcinogenic benzene and nitrobenzene down the river toward Russia, disrupting the water supplies of cities along the way. The report recommends that China adopt the agency's "Awareness and Preparedness for Emergencies at Local Level" guidelines, which are designed to improve coordination among communities hit by environmental disasters and thereby reduce the risks of industrial accidents. The report also recommends that China randomly sample chemical factories to strengthen safety procedures as a way to reduce accident risks and better handle any upsets. "Endorsed by both UNEP and the Chinese government, the report from the four-person UNEP team notes that lessons learnt from the incident should be incorporated into policy, legislation and enforcement," the statement said. It added that the agency stands ready to assist the Chinese authorities in taking forward recommendations relating to the spill and measures to reduce the risk of a similar incident in the future. China and UNEP will also share their report with Russian authorities braced for the pollution to enter the Khabarovsk area of the country's Far East. During the visit, the UNEP team visited affected areas on the Songhua River downstream from the Jilin petrochemical plant where the accident occurred, according to the statement. The chemical spill flowed through the city of Harbin in late November, forcing it to cut off tap water to its 3.8 million urban residents for several days. Last month, the director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration resigned over the spill, and Chinese officials offered Russia help in detecting and mitigating the pollution. |