MEASURES TO TACKLE AIR POLLUTION

[Anchor Lead]

Air pollution continues to plague Korea in the new year, prompting the government to issue emergency pollution reduction measures across the nation. Some pollutants originated from overseas, but a considerable amount is generated domestically. From now on Korea will use drones and other high-tech equipment to make air cleaner.

[Pkg]

A drone installed with an air pollution gauge takes off. It flies over to a nearby factory and hovers over a chimney spewing out smoke. The drone measures the amount of pollutants by analyzing the smoke. A sample brought back by the drone is immediately analyzed in a mobile measurement center set up inside a vehicle. The test shows the sample contained a high level of methanol, a key contributor to fine dust.

[Soundbite] KIM JEONG-HOON(NAT'L INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH) : "We found some organic solvents. The findings will be used in selecting a target business site for a crackdown."

Using a drone saves time as it can collect samples faster and makes it easier to crack down on hard-to-access business sites. The mobile analysis vehicle travels around areas with high concentrations of factories and identifies sixty different pollutants on a real-time basis. In fact, the crackdown rate rose nearly 15% in the Seoul metropolitan area since the drone and the roving measurement vehicle were deployed in the field last year.

[Soundbite] HAN SANG-YUN(JEONBUK REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICE) : "Such regular surveillance activities can raise awareness so that factories can take preventive measures and voluntarily reduce emission of air pollutants."

Before the end of January, the Ministry of Environment plans to supply four drones to each regional environmental office across the country to inspect work sites prone to emitting air pollutants.