EU unveils new law to deter industrial accidents
Date: 11-Dec-01
Country: BELGIUM
The new rules, which will apply throughout the 15-nation European Union, amend the so called Seveso II directive of 1996, a law named after a 1976 disaster at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy.
The law includes measures aimed at improving safety measures for so-called "tailings ponds," which are used to store highly polluted water from mining activities.
The initiative follows an accident at a gold mine in Romania in January, when cyanide-tainted mud and water escaped from a tailings pond, causing a considerable environmental damage.
"Even if we cannot eliminate the risk of industrial accidents altogether in modern societies, we must ensure that European legislation aiming at reducing such risks to a minimum is adapted and improved," European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said in a statement.
The proposal also includes guidelines on classifying and storing pyrotechnical material in the wake of a fireworks explosion that occurred at Enschede, the Netherlands, in May 2000.
The new law will better define explosive and pyrotechnic substances, as well as decrease qualifying quantities of these substances.
