[Dioxin-l] Open burning ban in Japan

[Vergil Bushnell]

Asahi News Service 

                                            January 11, 2000, Tuesday 

LENGTH: 327 words 

HEADLINE: OPEN-AIR WASTE BURNING TARGETED 

DATELINE: TOKYO 

BODY: 
   The Health and Welfare Ministry plans to ban open-air waste burning and
seek hefty fines or imprisonment for violators, ministry officials said
on Jan. 7. 

The ministry made the decision to deal with the growing number of
complaints about neighborhood smoke, stenches and possible cancer-causing
dioxins caused by the burning waste, the officials said. 

Current laws on waste disposal do not clearly prohibit the burning of
garbage outdoors. To ban the practice, the ministry plans to submit
revisions
to the laws at the next ordinary Diet session that starts this month. 

The revisions will stipulate that violators face prison terms of up to one
year or maximum fines of 3 million yen ($28570). 

However, the revisions will not ban bonfires using scrap wood, the burning
of straw in rice fields, or fires to prevent agricultural products from
freezing, the officials said. 

Current laws on waste disposal only state that the burning of waste must
be conducted in incinerators. People who burn waste outdoors in
violation of the laws are only ordered by the government to stop such
action. 

Such government orders have had little effect because they are simply
administrative measures that carry no penalties, such as prison terms or
fines. 

Waste-disposal firms warned by the government have often burned garbage
again at other locations. 

In addition, the government cannot issue the order to unauthorized waste
disposal firms that burn waste outdoors. 

According to Health and Welfare Ministry statistics, the number of
waste-burning incidents in open air, confirmed by prefectural governments
throughout the country, stood at 5,385 in fiscal 1998, an increase of 40
percent from fiscal 1997, and more than double that of fiscal 1996. 

Of those cases, 80 percent were conducted by companies not including waste
disposal firms. 

In the 5,385 burnings of fiscal 1998, at least 40,000 tons of waste was
burned, according to the statistics. 

Vergil Bushnell
Multinationals Resource Center

email: vbushnell@essential.org
phone: 202.387.8030
address: PO Box 19405, Washington DC 20036