Highest local children’s center overage rate… “We need to check until the end whether excess facilities are improved.”

It was found that more than 4 out of 10 children's activity spaces, including daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary schools, that underwent environmental safety inspections last year exceeded environmental safety management standards for heavy metals, phthalates, and air quality.

According to data received from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute by Rep. Eogyu of the Democratic Party of Korea (Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province), a member of the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly on the 4th, 1,084 (43.2%) of the 2,509 children's activity spaces that received environmental safety inspections last year exceeded the standards.

Environmental safety diagnosis is a project to encourage improvement by checking in advance whether children's activity spaces meet environmental safety management standards.

By facility, local children's centers had the highest excess rate at 415 out of 587 (71%), followed by kindergartens at 48 out of 71 (68%), elementary schools at 233 out of 352 (66%), and daycare centers at 311 out of 505 (62%). 71 out of 982 amusement facilities (7%) and 6 out of 12 (50%) other theme park locations exceeded the standards.

In terms of items exceeding standards (including duplicates), phthalates were the most common at 725, followed by heavy metals at 476 and air quality at 202.

Phthalates, a chemical that softens plastic, are classified as substances subject to management in children's activity spaces as some of them are suspected endocrine disruptors and can affect reproductive function or physical development if overexposed over a long period of time.

There are a total of 6,922 children's activity spaces that have received environmental safety inspections over the past five years from 2021 to last year, of which 2,730 (39.4%) exceeded the standards.

The number of facilities exceeding the annual standard is increasing to 79 in 2021, 249 in 2022, 373 in 2023, 945 in 2024, and 1,084 last year.

Rep. Eo emphasized, "The fact that standards such as heavy metals and phthalates have been confirmed to be exceeding standards in daycare centers, kindergartens, and schools where children live is not a matter to be taken lightly. We need to closely analyze the causes of exceedances and vulnerable items for each facility, and check until the end to see whether facilities exceeding standards have actually been improved."