It's spewing dirt: Air pollution data at Samsung's factory in Joud is quite shocking
Just a few examples: Between 2019 and 2022, 88 tons of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, which causes miscarriage or abnormal fetal development, were released into the air, and the concentrations of nickel and cobalt were ten and twenty times the limit values.
Good City and Samsung Factory requested air pollution data for 2021 and 2022 from transparentBecause it was not yet available in the National Environmental Information System (OKIR) in January. The data obtained – and uploaded in the meantime – reveals that Jude's air is significantly burdened by the operation of the battery factory:
According to 2021 tests, the concentration of nickel and cobalt in the workplace air reached ten and twenty times the limit values.
According to the license issued in December 2023, a more stringent limit value will be applied to the NMP in the future, and instead of measuring once a year so far, Samsung Zrt will perform measurements every six months. In principle, the government office set higher amounts for serious violations of occupational health and safety – 15.5 million, 17.7 million and 20.7 million forints – but according to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the maximum penalty cannot exceed 10 million forints. Thus, the company escaped a labor protection fine of 30 million forints – while in 2022 it generated profits of nearly 31 billion forints.
There have been no monitoring wells in the Samsung industrial park for five years: the only measuring well was buried during construction, and the construction of new wells was not required due to the “negligible environmental impact” of the plant.
The decree of 14 February 2024 actually raises the maximum labor protection fines from 10 million HUF to 100 million HUF, but even this is a pittance with such a profit.
The residents of Gudi have access only to polluted air. The factory paid 6.8 billion HUF to the province, which would otherwise have gone to the city. But the government issued a decree on special economic zones during the state of emergency during the first wave of the pandemic, according to which some ownership of the zones reverts – Hence the right to levy local taxes – to the provincial government. Göd's total revenue this year is about 5 billion HUF.
The Göd factory also affects the lives of people living in Vác: we previously reported in the public forum that the city was announced after the explosion of the pipeline transporting wastewater from the factory to the water treatment plant in Vác.
via Telex
