Four categories of pollutants are defined as new pollutants

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Ecological Environment，P.R.C, there are four categories of new pollutants widely concerned in the world: one is persistent organic pollutants, the second is endocrine disruptors, the third is antibiotics, and fourth is plastic microplastics. After being discharged into the environment, they are defined as new pollutants.

From the perspective of improving eco-environmental quality and environmental risk management, new pollutants refer to toxic and harmful chemicals with biological toxicity, environmental persistence, and bioaccumulation characteristics those. These toxic harmful chemicals and have great hazardous risks to the ecological environment or human health, but due to the lack of existing management measures, they have not been included in environmental management. The reason why it is called "new" is explained by Director Ren Yong, "on the one hand, it is relative to the familiar conventional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and PM2.5; on the other hand, there are many kinds of new pollutants, and the more important feature of "new" is that their types may continue to increase."

It is understood that with the deepening understanding of environmental and health hazards of chemical substances and the continuous development of environmental monitoring technology, the number of new pollutants that may be identified will continue to increase.

The difficulty of new pollutant treatment stems from five characteristics: the harm is relatively serious, the risk is relatively hidden, the environmental durability, the wide range of sources, governance is complex.

Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4Enx2prIhztfvDPUMEwezQ