The general authority for the Environment and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) signed a project contract (Research on the assessment of health risks related to toxic contaminants in Kuwait,  Phase I). The project concerns the southern sector of the state of Kuwait. It aims to identify the concentration, sources and health risks related to the exposure to hazardous substances in residential areas near "Shuaiba industrial area".

The Director general of the authority, Sheikh Abdullah Ahmad al-Hamoud al-Subah, said in a speech during the signing of the contract that Kuwait had begun to monitor air quality since late 1970s through establishment of the Environmental Protection Department, then the Environmental Protection Council in 1980 through the establishment of a network of stations consisting today of 16 fixed and portable stations, distributed geographically to different areas of Kuwait. The Director-General of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Dr\Samira Al-Sayed Omar, said in a speech that this contract comes in four phases, covering the northern, southern, urban and western areas, and the focus in the first phase is currently on the southern area as it is the most industrialized and oil is excavated, produced and refined there.