Nine conglomerates have pledged to invest 2.8 trillion won ($2.4 billion) by 2015 in industries to prevent toxic leaks as part of joint measures to prevent environmental disasters at factories, the government said Friday.

Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and others will be injecting the funds to improve old facilities, enhance safety installations and build up toxic gas monitoring systems.

All industries will be required to adopt the leak detection and repair system, which currently only applies to the petrochemical industry, in order to check for any leak at valves, pumps and pipes at factories.

These and other measures were announced at a meeting presided by the Prime Minister’s Office and attended by related ministries and the Federation of Korean Industries.

Concerns about safety at factories have been high amid a recent rise in the number of fatal accidents.

The number of deaths from chemical accidents surged nearly 40 percent from a year ago with a total of 98 people killed in chemical accidents last year due to fires, explosions and gas leaks at industrial plants, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

(rene@heraldcorp.com)