Management of chemical substances in a water environment communicating among stakeholders

With the implementation of Pollutant Discharge and Transfer Register (PRTR) in fiscal 2003, information on the quantity of chemical substances discharged annually from each business is released in Japan. Such information is expected to lead to heightened public concern about the presence of chemical substances in environment. This paper showed the effects of using PRTR data for managing chemical risk in a water environment communicating among stakeholders based on the results of the case study held in Japan. First, it was possible to identify the discharge sources using PRTR and related data for the chemicals such as Zn and NPs which were shown that they had relatively high risks based on the survey in a model area. Second, it was suggested that the chemical risk communication among the stakeholders including people using PRTR and related data would be a good way to encourage environmental activities of businesses, and to build a good relationship among stakeholders including people who have anxiety about chemical risk.