Making an Odorless City: The 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and the Transformation of Urban Odor Regulation

악취 없는 도시 만들기: 서울 올림픽과 도시 악취 규제의 전환

This paper examines how South Korean government regulators and environmental scientists endeavored to improve the environmental quality of Seoul in preparation for the Olympic Games in 1988. When Seoul was nominated as a host city of the Summer Games in 1981, it was suffering from severe environmental pollution. The municipal government of Seoul and the Ministry of Environment initiated a series of pollution survey projects, which were followed by relevant regulatory procedures. One of the outcomes of these projects was the beginning of odor pollution regulation that used the Environmental Official Testing Method. Although the Pollution Prevention Act of 1963 made odor pollution such as unpleasant order, stench, and stink subject to environmental regulation, proper administrative procedures to reduce odor pollution were not in place until the 1980s. In order to reduce odor pollution in urban areas, governmental officers and environmental scientists tried to regulate odor-causing chemicals from factories. In June 1988, however, severe odor pollution was detected not from factories but from unregulated areas in Seoul, such as the waterside parks of the Han river, the downtown, and the marketplaces. The local regulators and scientists were concerned that the odor pollution could make a "wrong" impression on foreign athletes and visitors about the degree of "modernity" of Korea. This paper shows that the 1988 Summer Olympics was a transition point in the early history of odor regulation in South Korea, when the scope of odor regulation could be expanded.

1963년 「공해방지법」의 제정 이래 악취는 정부가 규제하고 관리해야 할 문제로 인식되었다. 다만 규제 대상으로서의 악취는 공장의 생산과정에서 배출되는 악취로 한정되었고, 생활 쓰레기나 하천의 오염으로부터 발생하는 생활악취는 오랫동안 규제 영역 바깥에 놓여 있었다. 본 논문은 환경 규제와 관련해 신체적 감각의 역할에 주목하는 과학 기술학의 논의를 따라 생활악취가 규제대상으로 포함되는 과정을 추적한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 올림픽을 앞두고 발생한 악취 문제에 주목함으로써 악취가 부끄럽고 수치스러운 대상으로 여겨지게 되었으며, 악취 문제의 대응 과정에서 생활악취가 법적 규제의 대상으로 포함되었음을 보일 것이다.