Tag: pollution

Here is something to think about for anyone thinking of living long term and raising a family in South Korea:

The number of South Korean babies with birth defects has increased significantly since the early 1990s, likely due to traffic-related air pollutants and endocrine disruptors, a study showed Monday.  The report, by Inha University’s Social and Preventive Medicine department, researched the national health insurance data of 403,250 infants aged 0-1 living in Korea’s seven metropolitan areas between 2009 and 2010. It found that 5.5 percent of all infants researched during the period had birth defects, an increase from the 3.3 percent of those born between 1993 and 1994.

Among all birth defects reported in the period of 2009-2010, hypospadias — a birth defect of the urethra where the urinary opening is not on the head of the male genital — had the highest increase rate of all birth defects from 1993-2010. The prevalence rate of the abnormality increased from 0.7 per 10,000 in 1993-1994 to 9.9 per 10,000 in 2009-2010. Meanwhile, the number of cases of cryptorchidism, the absence of one or both testes from the scrotum, also increased significantly from 2.6 per 10,000 to 29.1 per 10,000.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but I always wondered what long term exposure to the yellow dust polluted with heavy metals from China would do to people over the long term.

For those of us who were in Korea in 2000 when the Yongsan Water Dumping Incident happened this news about 25 companies dumping toxic chemicals in the Han River with hardly any outrage shows the entire hypocrisy of what happened back in 2000:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it has caught 25 companies releasing wastewater polluted with hazardous chemicals into the Han River.

Most of the polluters are small and medium-sized enterprises operating factories to make textiles and metals, according to the municipality. But it refused to disclose their names.

The city government suspected the firms discharged nearly 3,000 tons of wastewater poisoned with potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol, all of which should be tightly regulated for its potential health risks.

The city found the illegal wastewater release after taking samples from 52 locations along the river during an inspection that began in April.

“The city received tips about their illegal activities,” a city inspection officer said. “We know there are businesses which have released hazardous chemicals into the river. This year, inspection has been stricter because of a drought. If factories upstream leak chemicals, it could cause serious damage to drinking water for Seoul residents.”

The Han River is a major source of drinking water in Seoul and its surrounding areas.

The inspector said the level of potassium cyanide found in water was 765 times higher than the permitted amount. The amount of chromium was 10 times more than the allowable limit. The level of lead, copper and phenol showed 4,098 times, 628 times and 222 times, respectively, higher than the regulated cap.  [The Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but this is just another example of why I do not recommend drinking tap water in Korea.  To put this pollution in perspective South Korea went into a anti-American hatefest over 20 gallons of formaldehyde that was diluted first by running water, then was processed through the Seoul waste treatment system, and finally through the Nanjido central metropolitan treatment plant along with 1.9 million gallons of other sewage and waste. Here we have 3,000 tons of potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol dumped in the Han River with little criticism.

Via a reader tip comes news that the Korean left is trying to re-stoke this old issue to bash USFK with:

The city estimated that polluted water near the Yongsan Garrison and Camp Kim came to 1,870 tons and 100 tons, respectively.

City officials noted that benzene, toluene and xylene among other chemicals were found in the underground water system.

Despite the capital pumping nearly 2,000 tons of contaminated water since 2001, pollutants were found to have remained in drainage water from the bases.

The discovery of pollutants is increasing concerns about waste disposal at U.S. bases, already heightened by concerns of possible Agent Orange contamination at camps in Korea.

Officials reiterated the urgency of preventing pollutants from entering the Hangang River. (Korea Herald)

You can read more at the link but the so called environmentalists are also bashing camps that are no longer even being turned over like Camp Casey and Camp Hovey. First of all there is going to be pollution on camps that are decades old and housed military equipment. This is not news. Secondly these studies in the past have been sensationalized by including lead contamination from rifle ranges and oil from new asphalt as pollution. They even claimed that people had to wear decontamination suits to go on Camp Kyle which I proved was false.

A lot of this issue comes down money.
When the base handover agreements were completed by the Roh Moo-Hyun government, they agreed to take the land including all buildings and infrastructure at no cost. Further cleanup efforts beyond what the United States already has done is supposed to be handled by the ROK. So on this issue the left gets to bash USFK again while the government can use this issue to get more money from the U.S. To pay for base clean up.

A tanker truck carrying sulfuric acid hit a guardrail along a local road Wednesday and overturned, spilling some of the acid into Nakdong River, South Korea’s longest river, firefighters and police said.

The truck, which had a load capacity of 25 tons, was carrying about 20,000 liters of sulfuric acid. About 200 liters of the acid spilled into the river, which passes through Gyeongsang Provinces in the country’s southeast, they added.

The 53-year-old driver of the truck suffered a minor injury.

The firefighters said they are trying to contain the spill by building an embankment to prevent more acid from flowing into the river.

Authorities said they are inspecting water from the river to determine whether the leaked sulfuric acid has negatively affected living things in the river. Sulfuric acid, which is highly corrosive, can be fatal to fish.

“As the acid that has spilled into the river has been diluted, it seemed that the accident would have little effect,” said an official at the provincial government.

The authorities said that they will continue to inspect the water in the lower region of the river to gauge the effect of the leakage for the next few days.  [Yonhap]

One pillar of the anti-US hate groups has collapsed:

Seoul and Washington yesterday finalized the return of 14 U.S. military bases to Korea but the agreement finds Seoul agreeing to shoulder as much as 40 billion won ($42 million) for the necessary environmental clean-up of the military installations.
A total of 18 bases, including four that already have been returned, are now back in Seoul’s hands while negotiations for the return of the remaining 41 bases continues.
Under an agreement with Washington called the Land Partnership Plan, the United States will return 59 bases to South Korea by 2011. Until now, Seoul and Washington have been at odds over how to split the cost related to the environmental cleaning process.

The entire camp pollution issue is a total fraud and now the Korean government is paying for helping perpetuate the fraud. Of course the anti-US group Green Korea has now weighed in on the announcement from the Korean government:

Civic groups such as Green Korea United criticized the government yesterday for giving in to Washington on the issue.
“The U.S. soldiers have left and they left Korea a lot of waste. This should not serve as an example for other bases to be returned in the future. U.S. forces need to be asked clearly to take responsibility,” said the organization in a statement.

Here is the source of Green Korea’s concern about this issue:

In February, Green Korea and some media outlets said they acquired leaked Ministry of the Environment data that showed unsafe ground and water contamination levels at several sites. They included camps Page, Garry Owen, Greaves, Stanton, Edwards, Giant, Falling Water and Howze, the Kimpo post terminal, the Freedom Bridge and the Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and North Carolina firing ranges.

Can you believe that firing ranges have lead contamination? I tell you I am shocked! What is even more laughable about this is that the firing ranges are not used exclusively by USFK but by the ROK Army as well. Why isn’t the ROK Army being investigated for pollution? I found the inclusion of Freedom Bridge even funnier because USFK soldiers guarded that bridge. How the heck do soldiers pulling guard duty which also includes Koreans by the way, pollute a bridge to the point that these environmentalists say it is unsafe for the public? If this bridge is unsafe than every bridge in Korea needs to be shut down!

For those who have never served in Korea, the USFK camps are literally an oasis of green in the middle of dense urban cities. The camps after the Korean war were located on the outskirts of Korean cities but the camps have now been swallowed up by the growing cities which are a sign of Korea’s amazing development since the war. It is partly because of this development that USFK wants to relocate the camps to the sparsely populated Camp Humphreys area. If anything the USFK camps are the cleanest piece of land in the surrounding communities and some have been designated to become parks when handed over; yet the anti-US hate groups have successfully used this issue to further delay the USFK relocation.

That is why I say release the pollution findings with detailed data to check for errors because I wouldn’t be surprised if the findings were “Dr. Hwang-ed for political reasons especially when these so call environmental groups have been linked to North Korean spies.

If USFK really wanted to prove a point they should have environmental studies conducted by their own researchers on USFK bases compared to the surrounding communities. Does anyone think for example that Yongsan Garrison is more dangerous to the environment than Seoul? Case in point while Green Korea is busy complaining about these camps, Korean citizens in multiple cities are drinking water with high levels of uranium and Green Korea could care less.