Parliamentary subcommittee approves bill to categorize fine dust as 'social disaster'

SEOUL, March 8 (Yonhap) -- A National Assembly subcommittee on Friday okayed a bill to amend the basic law on disaster and safety management in order to include fine dust in the category of "social disasters."

The action was hastily made by the bill review subcommittee of the Assembly's interior and safety committee amid great public anger in the wake of the highest-ever influx of the particles, highly likely to have come from China, that suffocated the entire Korean Peninsula over the last week.

The upper committee is scheduled to handle the bill in a plenary session Monday.

Fine dust -- particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter -- can cause various respiratory diseases and undermine the body's immune system.

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