9.1 Overview of Laboratory Infrastructure

China boasts a great number of chemical research institutes affiliated to the SEPA, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industry. They are the technical backup for the management of chemicals.

Those affiliated to the SEPA include the China Environmental Science Research Institute, China National Environment Monitoring Station, Sino-Japanese Friendship Environmental Protection Center, the SEPA Chemicals Registration Center, the SEPA Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, the SEPA South China Institute of Environmental Science, Shenyang Institute of Environmental Science, and relevant provincial and municipal institutes of environmental science and monitoring stations. They undertake the following tasks: prevention and control of environmental pollution, formulation of environmental standards and norms, registration of chemicals, testing of environmental pollutants, studies on the biological toxicology of chemicals, environmental monitoring and analysis of pesticide residues. They have some special laboratories, including the key laboratory for studying chemical testing technology, to make analyses of and carry out tests on chemicals and research the biological toxicology of chemicals.

Those affiliated to the Ministry of Health include the Environmental Health Monitoring Institute, Institute of Environmental Health and Health Engineering, Institute of Industrial Health and Occupational Diseases, Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene and Institute of Food Hygiene Supervision and Testing under the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medical Science, as well as provincial and municipal health and epidemic prevention stations and institutes of industrial health and occupational disease prevention and control. They have special-purpose chemical analysis laboratories and toxicology laboratories to engage in the toxicology research of chemicals, pesticides and cosmetics as well as in the testing of chemical pollutants and research on the prevention and control of poisoning. Besides, the Ministry of Health has also under it the four institutes of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences — the Medicines Institute, Institute of Medical Biotechnology, Institute of Medicinal Herbs and Medicines Testing Institute, as well as various provincial and municipal medicines testing institutes to carry out pharmacological and chemical analyses of medicines.

Those affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture include the Pesticides Testing Institute, Environmental Protection Institute, China Veterinary Medicines Supervision Institute and Institute of Soil and Fertilizers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as various provincial and municipal pesticides testing institutes. They engage in studies on pesticide effects, chemical properties and residues.

Those affiliated to the State Economic and Trade Commission and the State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industry include the key State Explosion Safety Laboratory, the Safety Engineering Research Institute of the China Petrochemical Industrial Group, Shanghai Toxic Chemicals Information Service Center, Environmental Protection Institute of the Beijing Chemical Industry Research Institute and Shenyang Chemical Industry Research Institute, as well as various provincial and municipal industrial health and occupational disease prevention and control institutes. Their tasks involve chemical testing, pollutant testing, pesticide development and research, new medicine safety assessment, research on environmental toxicology, prevention and control of occupational diseases in the chemicals industry and research into legislation and policies concerning chemicals management.

The Ecological Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is also an important institution engaging in chemical research. The center is provided with a key State laboratory for environmental water chemistry and an open laboratory for environmental analytical chemistry and ecological toxicology. They carry out research on water chemistry, the impact of chemical substances on the environment in dynamic conditions, and analysis of transient states and new chemical forms of intermediate products, as well as on the transportation of chemical substances (including micro-pollutants), and their ecological toxicity and related analytic chemistry. The Aquatic Organism Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is an important research institute concerning the toxicology of chemical hydro-organisms. It also engages in the study of the aquatic ecological environment.

Of the more than 1,000 universities in China, many serve as technological support for the management of chemicals. In additional to their routine teaching assignments, they contribute to the analysis and testing of chemicals, environmental protection, research on toxicology, control of poisoning and research on legislation and policies concerning chemicals management.

Table 9.1 gives an overview of the laboratory infrastructure of regulatory chemical analysis.

9.2 Overview of Government Information Systems/Computer Capabilities

The SEPA has a national toxic chemicals data base and a data bank containing a list of chemicals available now in China. The toxic chemicals data base contains the whole data of IRPTC and the data base on the toxic effects of chemical substances (USA).The Environmental Health Monitoring Institute under the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medical Science has established a poisoning information system and hazardous chemicals information system. It has also imported from the US a data base on the toxic effect of chemical substances and one on hazardous substances. The toxic chemicals information data bank established by the Shanghai Toxic Chemicals Information Service Center consists of a principal system and a subsystem. The principle system is the imported data base on the toxic effect of chemical substances, while the subsystem contains the United States Coast Guard chemical hazard emergency information system of the US Department of Transportation, the data base for technical assistance concerning oil products and hazardous substances of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and three data banks on poisoning and first-aid, standards and legislation, and safety programmed by the center itself. The chemical industry safety data bank of the Safety Engineering Research Institute of the China Petrochemical Industry Group Co., consists of imported TRADE NAMES, CHEM INFO, TDG, RIPP, CISISO and the document data base of NIOSH (USA), as well as four Chinese data banks developed by the institute itself — making approximately 10 million items of data about 100,000 types of chemicals available. The four Chinese data banks deal with hazardous chemicals handling safety and emergency leakage treatment.

Table 9.1 Overview of Partial Laboratory Infrastructure Available for Regulatory Chemical Analysis

*GLP: Good Laboratory Practice

Since computers were applied to chemicals research in China in 1986, a national computer network comprised of four backbone nets has taken shape. The four backbone nets are Chinanet, CERnet (China Education and Research Net), CSTnet (China Science and Technology Net) and ChinaGBN (China Golden Bridge Net). They are connected with special networks in hundreds of cities and dozens of State departments. Today, domestic subscribers to these four networks can have direct access to the Internet. The Chinese Government launched the on-line project on January 22, 1999. Governments at various levels have since developed their own networks by using original resources and continuing input. By the end of 1999, about 60 percent of the central government departments had linked up with the Internet. A total of 41 State Council institutions have set up their own websites on the Internet, which are accessible to the public. They include the SEPA, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industry, State Economic and Trade Commission, General Administration of Customs and Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The SEPA Chemicals Registration Center and the Environmental Health Monitoring Institute of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medical Science have also set up their own websites. These websites have published a great deal of professional information, which is available to the general public.

The SEPA and its subordinate units in Beijing, including the China Environmental Science Research Institute, Sino-Japanese Friendship Environmental Protection Center, China National Environmental Monitoring Station and Chemicals Registration Center, have been connected through computers.

9.3 Overview of Technical Training and Education Programs

Chemicals management technical training and education are closely associated with environmental education. It is a strategic task of China’s environmental protection undertakings to promote education about the environment to enhance the nation’s awareness of the importance of environmental protection and encourage the public to conscientiously participate in such efforts. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to environmental protection education.

China convened its first national environmental protection conference in 1973. The meeting put forward the following principles to guide the environmental protection campaign: “Overall and rational planning, comprehensive utilization, turning what are harmful into what are beneficial, and mass participation.” These principles highlighted the importance of public participation in this work. Later, the State Council approved and transmitted the Report on the National Situation of Environmental Protection and the Rules for Protecting and Improving the Environment submitted by the State Planning Commission. The State Council’s document clearly stipulated that “the institutes of higher learning concerned should offer specialties and courses in environmental protection to train technical personnel in this respect.”

Over the following 20-odd years, a fairly sound environmental education system has taken shape, which involves leadership training, professional education, on-the-job training, and middle and elementary school education.

(1) Leadership training. To teach and examine decision makers’ knowledge of environmental protection are important means to enhance their awareness of the environment. In recent years, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and some local Party schools have offered lectures on environmental protection knowledge. At each Mayors’ Workshop held jointly by the Ministry of Construction, Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and China Association for Science and Technology, courses including Strategies for Environmental Protection in China and Tackling the Urban Environment in A Comprehensive Way are available.

(2) Professional education. This includes higher, intermediate and vocational high school education designed to cultivate different grades of professionals and technicians, including Ph.D and master’s degree holders, undergraduates, graduates of specialized colleges, and graduates of polytechnic schools. Environmental education started in the latter half of the 1970s, with only a few universities offering the specialty. But it developed rapidly in the 1980s. So far, various universities, colleges and polytechnic schools have supplied environmental protection agencies with about 10,000 graduates, easing the serious shortage of specialized professionals in those agencies.

(3) On-the-job training. The majority of people engaged in environmental protection in China are inexperienced, as they were transferred to the sector from other walks of life. Hence, it is an urgent task to improve their professional level and capability through on-the-job training.

At present, a person must pass an examination and obtain a certificate before getting a post in this sector. Statistics show that the environmental protection agencies at various levels have conducted nearly 10,000 training classes of various types over the past decade, at which some 400,000 people have received training.

(4) Middle and elementary school training. In 1979, the Chinese Society of Environmental Science convened the first meeting of the environmental education committee. Since then, environmental education for children has flourished.

(5) Support of the mass media, video products, movies and literature and art for environmental education. Since the late 1980s, the mass media have played a significant role in guiding the public’s attention to the environment, disseminating environment-related scientific knowledge, legislation and policies among the public, and enhancing the public’s awareness of environmental protection and their sense of participation. In additional to publishing positive reports, the press have also criticize different regions and departments. The number of video products, movies, and even pop songs concerning environmental protection has increased. With diversified themes and formats (including newsreels, feature films, scientific and educational films, special-subject films, art films and teaching films), serve to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of the environment.

Environmental education has two fundamental tasks. One is to raise the nation’s awareness of the environment, and the other is to cultivate professionals for protecting the environment, including the improvement of the professional knowledge and skills of existing personnel in environmental protection posts. The general goal is to develop environmental education in a planned, all-sided and multi-layered way, and to readjust, enrich and improve professional education, develop on-the-job education, basic education and social education to enhance the environmental awareness of the whole nation, and that of the leadership in particular.

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