1. Those who cause serious environmental pollution and have serious consequences shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined;

2. If the consequences are particularly serious, they shall be sentenced to three years in prison to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.

According to the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China", the specific provisions are as follows:

Article 338 Violates national regulations and discharges or dumps into land, water, or atmosphere or disposing of radioactive waste, waste containing infectious disease pathogens, toxic substances or other hazardous waste, causing a major environmental pollution accident, causing heavy losses to public or private property or serious consequences of personal injury or death, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention. A fine may be imposed concurrently or solely;

If the consequences are particularly serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.

Extended information

The constitution of the crime of environmental pollution:

1. Object elements

The object of this crime is the state’s prevention and control of environmental pollution management system.

The object of this crime is hazardous waste. Specifically, it includes radioactive waste, waste containing infectious disease pathogens, toxic substances or other hazardous waste.

The so-called hazardous wastes refer to wastes with hazardous characteristics that are included in the national list of hazardous wastes or identified according to national hazardous waste identification standards and identification methods.

Radioactive waste refers to solid, liquid and gaseous waste whose radionuclides exceed nationally prescribed limits;

Waste containing infectious disease pathogens refers to sewage, waste containing infectious disease germs, Feces and other wastes;

Toxic substances refer to solid, muddy and liquid wastes that are toxic to the human body and may cause serious harm to human health and the environment;

Other hazardous wastes are Refers to wastes other than those listed above that are included in the national list of hazardous wastes or have hazardous characteristics identified in accordance with national hazardous waste identification standards and identification methods.

2. Objective elements

The objective aspect of this crime is to violate national regulations by discharging, dumping or disposing of radioactive waste or infectious disease pathogens into land, water, or atmosphere. Waste, toxic substances or other hazardous wastes, causing major environmental pollution accidents, causing heavy losses to public and private property or serious consequences of personal injury or death.

1) The commission of this crime must violate national regulations.

Refers to violation of laws related to environmental protection formulated by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee, as well as relevant administrative regulations, administrative measures, decisions or orders issued by the State Council.

These laws and regulations mainly include the "Environmental Protection Law", "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Marine Environmental Protection Law", "Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law" and other laws , as well as a series of special regulations such as the "Radiation Protection Regulations" and the "Trial Standards for the Emission of Industrial "Three Wastes"".

2) Implement discharge, dumping and disposal behaviors

Discharge refers to the discharge of various hazardous wastes into land, water, and atmosphere, including pumping, overflowing, and leaking , spraying, pouring, etc. Dumping refers to the act of dumping hazardous waste to land, water, or the atmosphere through ships, aircraft, platforms, or other vehicles;

Disposal refers to incineration, landfilling, etc. or other acts of disposing of hazardous waste in a manner that changes the properties of hazardous waste or placing it in a specific place or facility and not retrieving it.

3) It must have caused a major environmental pollution accident, causing heavy losses to public or private property or serious consequences of personal injury or death.

This crime is a consequential crime. Whether the perpetrator's illegal discharge, dumping, and disposal of hazardous waste constitutes a crime shall be determined by the consequences of his behavior. If the behavior causes serious consequences, this crime shall be punished. Argument. Otherwise it cannot be punished as a crime.

As for what the standard of "serious consequences" is, further explanation is needed.

Please refer to the "Interim Measures for Reporting Environmental Pollution and Damage Accidents" issued by the National Environmental Protection Administration on September 10, 1987 and the "Interim Regulations on Investigation Procedures for Particularly Major Accidents" issued by the State Council on March 29, 1989

3. Subject requirements

The subject of this crime is a general subject, that is, anyone who has reached the age of criminal responsibility and has the ability to be criminally responsible can commit this crime. A unit can become the subject of this crime.

4. Subjective elements

The subjective aspect of this crime is negligence. This kind of negligence refers to the actor's psychological attitude towards causing major environmental pollution accidents, causing heavy losses to public or private property, or serious personal casualties. The actor should have foreseen such accidents and serious consequences, but failed to do so due to negligence. foresee. Or it may have been foreseen but credulously avoided.

As for the perpetrator's behavior of discharging, dumping, and disposing of hazardous waste in violation of national regulations, it is often intentional, but this does not affect the criminal negligence nature of this crime.

Supervisory Laws and Regulations Database-Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China