International environmental management imbalance

Kraft pulp mills which use molecular chlorine as a bleach have faced a crisis since the late 1980s when the USEPA discovered that the super-toxic 2,3,7, 8—tetrachlorodibenzo—p—dioxins and dibenzofurans were being exported in the aqueous effluent from the mills. The responses of the two bleached kraft pulp nation-industries of Canada and Japan are compared first at the regulation level, and then at the level of the industriesʹ response to dioxin control. Japan utilised Canadian environmental management methods in the absence of research and regulation activity. This permitted the Japanese industry to delay changing to cleaner production methods until the interaction in Canada, between government research and regulation and the mill industry, brought about improvements in the management of this problem. The Japanese industry then appropriated these control strategies for their own production conditions. Drawbacks of this series of events are discussed.