Authoritative Interpretation of ＂New Pollution Control＂ by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment

　　This year’s government work report proposes to strengthen the management of solid waste and new pollutants. At the press conference held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on the 30th, Ren Yong, Director of the Solid Waste and Chemicals Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, explained the treatment of new pollutants.

　　Question: What is a new pollutant?

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

　　At present, there are four kinds of new pollutants that are widely concerned in the world: persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disruptors, antibiotics and microplastics.

　　Second question: where is the new pollutant "new"?

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

　　Three questions: where is the difficulty in controlling 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 more serious. New pollutants may be harmful to organs, nerves, reproductive development and other aspects, and their production and use are often closely related to human life, which poses 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, pollutants may have entered the environment through various channels.

　　The third is environmental durability. 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, the source is extensive. China is a big country in the production and use of chemical substances, with tens of thousands of kinds in production and use, and thousands of new chemical substances are added every year, and their production and consumption may have environmental emissions.

　　Fifth, the governance is complicated. For persistent and bioaccumulative new pollutants, even if they are discharged into the environment at a low dose, they may endanger the environment, biology and human health, which requires a high degree of treatment.

　　He pointed out that new pollutants involve many industries, and the industrial chain is long. It is difficult to research and develop substitutes and alternative technologies, and it is necessary to coordinate multi-sectoral and cross-disciplinary governance and implement life-cycle environmental risk management and control.

　　Four questions: How to control new pollutants?

　　Ren Yong introduced that the general idea of new pollutant control is to "screen" and "evaluate" new pollutants that need to be controlled by screening and evaluating the environmental risks of toxic and harmful chemicals. Then implement the whole process control of key new pollutants, including the source prohibition, process emission reduction and terminal treatment of production and use. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with relevant departments, is studying and formulating an action plan for the treatment of new pollutants, and put forward the overall requirements, main objectives, action measures and safeguard measures for the treatment of new pollutants in China during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period.

　　be relevant

　　The treatment and disposal capacity of medical waste and medical sewage in medium and high risk areas is sufficient.

　　Recently, there has been a cluster COVID-19 epidemic in many places in China. Ren Yong, director of the Department of Solid Waste and Chemicals of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said on the 30th that from the dispatching situation, the treatment and disposal of medical waste and medical sewage in the middle and high-risk areas in China are stable and orderly, and the treatment and disposal capacity is sufficient.

　　Ren Yong said that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment regularly conducts centralized dispatching for areas with medium and high risk levels. Since the beginning of this year, daily dispatch has been implemented to guide and urge key areas to strictly implement the "two 100%" work requirements, that is, 100% full coverage of environmental supervision and services of medical institutions and facilities, and 100% full implementation of timely and effective collection, treatment and disposal of medical wastes and medical sewage. He said that about 70% of the cities (states) and municipalities directly under the Central Government involved in high-risk areas in China have a daily disposal load rate of medical waste below 50%, and the medical waste involved in the epidemic has been cleared daily. In addition, it has a relatively sufficient coordinated emergency response capability, which can be activated at any time. In terms of medical sewage, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment guides all localities to do a good job in environmental supervision of medical sewage and urban sewage treatment. At present, the sewage treatment capacity of designated hospitals and urban sewage treatment plants meets the demand and operates normally.

　　This group/Xinhua News Agency