PCB News Around the World

U.S. OKs Removing PCB-Containing Waste in Japan

Jiji Press Ticker Service
February 1, 2003, Saturday

The U.S. government Friday approved the transportation of Japanese polychlorinated biphenyl-containing waste at U.S. military facilities in Japan to the United States.

For one year from April 18, the Environmental Protection Agency will exempt the transportation from the Toxic Substances Control Act that bans foreign-manufactured PCB imports into the United States.

PCB-containing substances at 15 U.S. military installations in Japan, including the Kadena Air Force Base in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, total some 3,118 tons.

Those made in Japan account for 1,952 tons or 62 pct of the total. Most of the PCB-containing substances have levels of less than 50 parts per million, the maximum allowable level set by the EPA.

On Jan. 17, the United States transported home some 22.4 tons of U.S.-made, PCB-containing waste from Japan.

The EPA said it believes that its decision "will benefit the United States in several ways."

The long-term storage of PCB waste on U.S. military facilities in Japan poses risks of exposure to U.S. personnel and the environment. The risks can be mitigated through the action, the agency said.

"Also, the reduction of risk to Japanese citizens must be considered advantageous, especially in light of the heightened concerns over PCBs in that country and the sensitivities surrounding the U.S. military's presence in Japan," the agency said.

Moreover, "even assuming adequate disposal capacity becomes available in Japan in the near future, there are significant political obstacles that are likely to prevent the U.S. military disposing of its PCB waste in Japan," it said.

The agency concluded that the United States "bears some obligations to provide for the safe disposal of this waste in the United States if it can not be easily disposed of elsewhere."

PCB is used in old electrical machines manufactured in the 1960s and early 1970s as insulating oil.

Copyright 2003 Jiji Press Ltd.