Incheon Metropolitan City Government to Tackle Fine Dust, Ozone and Reduce Everyday Odors

[Financial News, Incheon = Reporter Han Gap-su] Incheon Metropolitan City Government will fully roll out environmental policies aimed at responding to harmful air-quality factors such as fine dust and ozone, while also reducing everyday odors that closely affect residents' daily lives. The city said on the 26th that it will promote a project to create a pleasant environment by responding to fine dust and ozone and cutting everyday odors, so residents can feel the benefits in their daily routines.
The project will focus on creating neighborhood-oriented 'Korean Air Lounge' spaces where residents can stay safely during periods of high fine-dust and ozone levels, as well as expanding the 'rental care system' for odor-emitting businesses such as restaurants that cook over open flames.
The Air Lounge is a space equipped with advanced air-purification functions so residents can use it with confidence on days when air pollution levels are high, including during severe fine-dust and ozone episodes. The city is reviewing priority installation sites in fine-dust management zones where facilities used by vulnerable groups such as children and older adults are concentrated, as well as in busy public areas frequently visited by residents.
In particular, the city plans to improve installation efficiency by making active use of existing facilities that can be repurposed, such as enclosed bus shelters.
At present, the city operates 116 fine-dust shelters at highly accessible facilities, including bus stops, Administrative Welfare Centers, senior centers and station waiting rooms. Building on its experience running these shelters, the city plans to gradually expand Air Lounges equipped with air-purification systems so residents can easily use them close to where they live.
The city will also strengthen measures to reduce everyday odors. It plans to provide specialized technical support to odor-emitting businesses such as restaurants that cook over open flames, while expanding the rental care system that helps cover maintenance costs for odor-control facilities such as electrostatic precipitators.
The city intends to give priority support to chronic odor sources that have generated long-running complaints, and to raise the cap on maintenance subsidies for each business site in order to deliver more tangible odor-reduction results.
Rather than simply distributing environmental facilities, the city plans to continue pursuing field-oriented environmental policies so residents can directly feel the effects in their daily lives. Through Air Lounges, it aims to protect public health from fine dust and ozone, while expanding support for odor-control facilities to improve living conditions in residential and commercial areas.
Woo Mi-hyang, head of the Air Conservation Division, said, "We will expand spaces where residents can breathe safely nearby and boldly reduce the inconvenience caused by odors in daily life, so that we can build an Incheon that is pleasant and healthy enough for residents to feel in their everyday lives."

[email protected] Han Gap-su Reporter