The government plans to check the environmental safety of all kindergartens and other facilities for children by 2016 and set guidelines on the use of phthalates and four other materials in infant feeding bottles and other baby products.

Also it will require builders to notify of any use of housing materials that contain atopy-causing substances.

These are the highlights of the Ministry of Environment’s 2012 plans reported to President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday.

“In order to minimize potential health risks from chemical materials, the government needs to establish a complete monitoring system from the manufacture, sale and disposal of the building materials. We will push to revise related law to allow that,” the ministry said in a press statement.

At present, about 6,580 kindergartens and other facilities for children constructed after 2009 are obliged to undergo environmental safety checks. The ministry said it will push to gradually expand the test over five years in a bid to put all facilities, numbered just short of 120,000, under the state monitoring system.

The government will set guidelines on the use of phthalates, organotin compounds and other materials in baby products and will ban the sale of any products that contain the materials beyond the limits.

The ministry’s plan included a series of the steps aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

It aims to encourage the use of “green card,” which the ministry launched last year in collaboration with a local credit card issuer. The green card aims to foster green consumption. It gives discounts or reward points to card holders when they use public transportation or buy eco-friendly products using the card. The ministry aims to boost the number of issued cards to 1.5 million next year from around 600,000 this year.

It plans to spend 62 billion won on subsidizing electric cars for governmental agencies and provincial governments and the construction of charging stations. Officials hope to see at least 2,500 new electric vehicles on the road next year.

The ministry also said it was studying an incentive program for buyers of compact cars and other vehicles that emit less carbon dioxide.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)