The Love Canal: Issues and problems

Abstract

Public concern over persistent organic pollutants (POPs) re-emerged in the 1990s due to studies describing endocrine disrupting effects of some POPs. While monitoring data suggested that concentrations of contaminants were less in South Korea than in more industrialized countries, the public perception was that there were significant risks posed by POPs. This perception may have resulted from inaccurate and insufficient information about the status of POPs in South Korea. The South Korean government, as a signatory authority of the Stockholm Convention, is obliged to submit a national implementation plan to ban or minimize POPs emissions. To date, little has been known regarding the overall POPs status including inventories, usage patterns, sources, emission, fate, and distribution in South Korea. To assess the status of four emerging POPs as well as the 12 existing classical POPs in South Korea we have compiled and reviewed all the available literature published since the mid-1990s on POPs in South Korea. We present and discuss: (1) emission inventories of individual POPs; (2) concentrations of the various POPs in various compartments of the environment; (3) conducted ecosystem and human exposure assessments; (4) report a case study of fate and multi-media transport of POPs; and finally (5) propose an appropriate strategy to minimize the risks of POPs in South Korea. In brief, concentrations of POPs were found to be relatively small, compared to most other industrialized countries. In fact, concentrations of many of the classical POPs were less than the environmental quality criteria suggested by government agencies, except for a few ‘hot spots’. However, due to a lack of sufficient information, the status and trends of PCDDs/DFs, DDTs, PBDEs and PFAs could not be assessed. Additional information from monitoring studies would be needed for certain locations. For instance, the emission of dioxin-like compounds, expressed on a per area basis, was estimated to be one of the greatest in the world, even though the recent governmental efforts to reduce the emission have resulted in decreased releases of several classes of POPs. Concentrations of some perfluoroalkylated compounds (PFAs), in some freshwater locations were found to be some of the greatest in the world. Identification of hot spots followed by remediation (for classical POPs) and nationwide monitoring surveys (for emerging POPs) would be strongly needed.