An exterior view of the Chemical Substances Safety Institute in Osong, North Chungcheong Province. [Provided by Chemical Substances Safety Institute]
An exterior view of the Chemical Substances Safety Institute in Osong, North Chungcheong Province. [Provided by Chemical Substances Safety Institute]

The Chemical Substances Safety Institute, an agency under the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy, said Thursday it will strengthen emergency response plans within chemical accident prevention and management documents and distribute revised drafting guidelines to industry.

The chemical accident prevention and management document is a regulatory system requiring workplaces that handle hazardous chemicals to analyze in advance the risks posed by their facilities and substances, calculate the potential impact range of an accident, inform nearby residents, and establish emergency response frameworks to minimize harm.

The revised guidelines include procedures for safely removing water-reactive substances from a facility's premises to prevent incidents from escalating into large-scale fires.

Water-reactive substances such as sodium and potassium generate highly flammable or explosive gases — including hydrogen — upon contact with water. They cannot be extinguished with water alone and must instead be handled with dry sand or specialized fire-suppression agents.

The guidelines also require facilities to establish rapid notification and information-sharing systems — covering emergency response agencies, local residents and neighboring workplaces — so that evacuations can proceed smoothly if smoke from a fire spreads to surrounding areas.

Alongside this, the guidelines require emergency response plans to include measures against secondary environmental contamination, covering the prevention of firefighting water from entering nearby rivers and waterways, the blocking of stormwater drains, and the recovery of contaminated water generated during fire suppression.

The full text of the revised guidelines is available as a PDF download from the Chemical Substances Safety Institute's website starting Thursday.

Park Bong-gyun, director of the Chemical Substances Safety Institute, said emergency response planning must now go beyond the existing framework — focused on chemical spills and leaks — to encompass large-scale fire scenarios as well. "Through this, we will reinforce on-site response capabilities — including swift initial response in emergencies and preventing the spread of fire damage — to further solidify the chemical safety management system," he said.


thlee@heraldcorp.com