In the midst of a growing concern about pollution ahead of the 2008 Olympics, China is coming down heavily on the drug industry after focusing on polluted rivers in July. China’s environmental watchdog has closed down or suspended 649 firms and given dozens of others a deadline to improve their waste disposal or face shutdown.
The last standards for Industrial water wastes and emissions in China were set in 1990’s, with no explicit rules or necessities for pharmaceutical companies. In March, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) published a list of 6,066 seriously polluting companies, out of which 117 were pharmaceutical firms.
Zhang Buyong, of the Guangzhou-based South Medicine Economic Research Institution, was quoted as saying:
Due to fierce competition, and to minimize costs, drug companies tend not to prioritize waste control and environmental protection.
Polluters along two of China’s main rivers have defied a decade-old clean-up effort, leaving much of the water unfit to touch, let alone drink, and a risk to a sixth of the population, state media said last week.
Half the checkpoints along the Huai River and its tributaries in central and eastern China showed pollution of ‘Grade 5’ or worse the top of the dial in key toxins, meaning that the water was unfit for human contact and may not be fit even for irrigation, national legislators were told.
As it is China’s pharmaceutical industry, replete with firms that churn out copycat drugs, often in violation of patents, and unproven or fake medicine, remains in desperate need of reform. I wonder how willing these industries would be in trying to turn more environmentally savvy.
Image credit
Source: Reuters
