The 3rd Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific was successfully held in Hangzhou

On 20-21 September 2017, the 3rd Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific jointly sponsored by Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited (CIRS) and Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (JEMAI) was successfully held in Hangzhou. During the summit meeting, officials and experts from General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China, ECHA Enforcement Forum, National Registration Center for Chemicals, Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, Research Institute of Highway under Ministry of Transport of China, China Association of Warehouses and Distribution, Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry, Japan Ministry of Environment, Korea Environment Corporation and Korea Testing & Research Institute gave speeches respectively and talked about the development trend of global chemical regulations. Delegates from over 120 enterprises and institutions, including Johnson & Johnson China Ltd., AkzoNobel, P&G, BASF, Michelin, Lubrizol and Ashland, attended the summit meeting.

President of SMCR, Ms. Yan Li

“It is meaningful for us to hold this summit meeting in Hangzhou in 2017,” said Ms. Yan Li, President of SMCR committee, “Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited was set up in Hangzhou in 2007 and 10 years have passed since its establishment.”

The Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific (SMCR) is regarded as the pioneer summit in China to communicate chemical regulations in Asia Pacific region. The first Shanghai Summit Meeting was held in 2011. Supported by governments of different countries as well as friends from different industries, the Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific has become one of the most influential summit meetings on chemical regulations in Asia pacific area, which provide a convenient communication platform for chemical enterprises all over the world.

The Asia-pacific region is one of the most promising chemical markets around the world. Its demand for chemicals take up almost one third of the global demand. As a result, the world is paying more and more attention to the safety of chemicals as well as the sustainable development in Asia-pacific region. Under the current strict supervision and inspection, the whole chemical industry now focuses on how chemical enterprises can improve their regulatory compliance work; how chemical enterprises can ensure the stability of production and trade; and how chemical enterprises can turn challenges into opportunity when facing technology gap, lack of experience and increasing cost.

The supervision and transport of hazardous chemicals in China is a key focus

During the summit meeting, Mr. Jinhe Chen from National Registration Center for Chemicals gave a speech on the supervision situation of hazardous chemicals in China. He told enterprises that China will spend three years to tighten its supervision and management on hazardous chemicals. Besides, Mr. Jinhe Chen mentioned that Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law as well as other rules and regulations concerning the conditions and technical requirements for the operation of hazardous chemicals are also being revised. During his speech, he also talked about the current situation of hazardous chemicals registration and the specific situations of safety enforcement for hazardous chemicals.

Chief Engineer, Research Institute of Highway under Ministry of Transport of China Mr. Jinzhong Wu

Mr. Jinzhong Wu from Research Institute of Highway under Ministry of Transport in China discussed the current exemption situations for the road transport of dangerous goods as well as the development trend. He mentioned that current freight volume of dangerous goods is 1 billion tons and road transport occupies over 60% of the total freight volume. He particularly analyzed the responsibilities of manufacturers in a major accident happened in Binzhou on August 7 concerning the transport of dangerous goods. In addition, he also talked about some exemption conditions and the current situations of road transport.

Secretary-General,China Association of Warehouses and Distribution Mr. Zhenyu Lin

Mr. Zhenyu Lin from China Associations of Warehouses and Distributions talked about regulations concerning the storage of hazardous chemicals. He told enterprises that some important national standards, including GB50016-2014 and GB15603-1995, are still being revised. He particularly analyzed the latest progress of GB 15603-1995. In accordance with presentation of Mr. Zhenyu Lin, GB 15603 is expected to publish at the end of 2018. After the release of this national standard, problems occurred due to the disunity of standards for the storage of hazardous chemicals will be solved and relevant enterprises can figure out whether their products shall be stored in a hazardous chemical warehouse.

The development trend of chemical regulations in Korea and Japan

Deputy Manager, International Support Center for Chemical Management, JEMAI, Japan Ms. Rong Hou

Mr. Rong Hou from Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry analyzed the implementation of GHS in Japan as well as its latest development. She also mentioned that major GHS regulations in Japan are PRTR, ISHL and PDSCL. These regulations rules whether SDS and labels are mandatory for one substance.

Deputy Director, Chemicals Evaluation Office, Environmental Health Department, MOE, Japan Mr. Yoshinori MOMOSE

Mr. Yoshinori MOMOSE from Japan Ministry of Environment introduced the basic situations of CSCL and analyzed the latest development of CSCL. During his speech, he told participants that there are two major changes to CSCL: 1. If companies choose low or small volume procedure, they can manufacture or import the new chemicals within the confirmed volume, each less than 1 ton or 10 ton per year. However, when two companies make a request to the government at the same time, the government permits each company to manufacture less than 0.5 ton/year so that volume in Japan should be less that 1 ton/year. As a result, the production volume is controlled in Japan. Besides, Japan now controls the environment emission in volume limit instead of the production volume; 2. The revised CSCL gave the definition of highly toxic new substance. During the process of risk assessment, if one substance is classified as a highly toxic new substance, it will be treated as specified chemicals.

Deputy General Manager, Korea Environment Corporation Mr. Sam Bae Park

Mr. Sam Bae Park from Korea Environment Corporation shared the current registration status of existing chemical substances subject to registration in Korea. He mentioned that among the 510 priority existing chemicals, 371 substances have formed CICO organization, lead registrants of 321 substances have been elected, registration dossiers of 16 substances have been submitted and 8 substances have gotten registered. As required by the amended ARECs, all the substances in volumes of over 1 ton per year shall get registered.

Head Researcher, Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR) Ms. Young-In Kim

Ms. Young-In Kim from Korea Testing & Research Institute introduced the data requirements under K-REACH, the acceptance criteria for registration data. By taking an example of potassium hydroxide, she analyzed the data requirements under K-reach and she told enterprises that this substance could get registered by using the current data from literature reviews.

ECHA will strengthen its supervision on chemicals in the future

Head of UnitC1-Dossier Submission and PIC, ECHA Ms. Mercedes Vinas

Ms. Mercedes Vinas from Dossier Submission and PIC under ECHA shared with participants how enterprises can cope with the 2018 REACH registration deadline. It is estimated that ECHA will receive about 60000 registration dossiers for 25000 substances, which is far more than the number of registration dossiers submitted to ECHA before the first two registration deadlines. Then she talked about the procedures of REACH registration. She particularly mentioned that the registration will be more convenient for enterprises in the future, for instance, less data is required when substances are not listed in Annex III and the cloud services will be provided by ECHA. ECHA also tries to enhance the quality of the registration dossiers submitted to ECHA. In 2017, almost 32% of the registration dossiers have gone through manual verification, among which 25% of the registration failed the first check. Under the principle of one substance one registration, ECHA will tighten its check on the registration dossiers by individual submission. Eventually, joint submission and data sharing are legal obligations in REACH.

Vice Chair, ECHA Enforcement Forum Mr. Eugen Anwander

Mr. Eugen Anwander systematically talked about the EU REACH implementation in EU member states. He introduced how national enforcement authorities coordinate with ECHA forum to control some specific substances. In 2017, ECHA enforcement forum implements control actions focusing on the safe use of registered substances and e-commerce consumer goods and relevant enterprises must provide related documents such as (extended) SDS and CSR to the enforcement forum. The enforcement action this time mainly focuses on whether the SDS provided by enterprises fulfill the requirements under REACH. Besides, Mr. Eugen Anwander also mentioned the sanctions and penalties in Member States, which includes pecuniary fines, withdrawal of business license and deprivation of freedom.

Chief Scientific Officer, Risk Management Technologies(RMT) Mr. Vince Pacecca

Mr. Vince Pacecca introduced the chemical regulations in Australia. According to his presentation, chemicals are managed by NICNAS. If the substance is a new substance, then relevant enterprise must complete notification before manufacturing or importing. He also gave an introduction to the types of notifications in Australia. Besides, Mr. Vince Pacecca introduced the GHS in Australia. As the GHS implemented in Australia aligns with the UN GHS 3rd edition, the GHS blocks in Australia are slightly different with those of the UN GHS.

The management trend for chemicals in China and the implementation progress of global GHS

Ms. Jinye Sun from Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center talked about the management trend for chemicals in China. She started with the current chemical management status in China. Then she told enterprises that chemicals will be managed separately in the future. She also mentioned that in order to control and restrict chemicals with high toxicity, China now is improving its new chemical substance environmental administration system, carrying out investigation concerning the use and manufacturing of environmental endocrine chemicals, carrying out assessment on existing chemical substances, establishing inventory of chemicals subject to priority control.

Senior Engineer, Review and Registration Division, Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, China MEP Ms. Ling Lu

Ms. Ling Lu from Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center gave an introduction to the progress of new chemical environmental administration regulations in China. She analyzed the current registration status of typical notification. She also talked about the information concerning the tonnage of substance, type of notification and the main applications. Ms. Ling Lu particularly introduced the latest updates of the guidance documents for new chemical substance notification and explained the adjusted parts from the perspective of data reduction and information improvements. At last, she simply gave an introductions to the amendments made to the measures for the management of new chemical substance.

Head of GHS team, Chemical Inspection& Registration Service Limited, China Ms. Cloris Pan

Ms. Cloris Pan from Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited introduced the latest developments of global GHS. She mentioned that enterprises should pay particular attention to the updates of GHS, including the GHS in Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Argentina, Canada, Vietnam and Mexico. Meanwhile, Ms. Cloris Pan also introduced the application scope of GHS in those countries. She told enterprises that the GHS classification of one substance might also be different in different countries for the GHS implemented in different countries are not the same. Besides, as the languages in SDS required by different countries are different and the mandatory information on SDS required by different countries are also different, as a result, one SDS cannot fulfill global compliance.

The latest developments of chemical management regulations in Southeast Asia

Regional Business Development Director (Asia-Pacific), Dr. Knoell Consult Thai Co. Ltd. Ms.Piyatida (Tung) Pukclai

Ms. Piyatida (Tung) Pukclai from Dr. Knoell Consult Thai Co. Ltd. shared the latest developments of chemical management regulations in South East Asia. During her speech, she at first gave an introduction to the types of notifications in Thailand, including HS list 5.6 notification, which is paid high attention to. If one substance is notified through HS list 5.6 notification, then the substance enters into the existing substance inventory. Besides, Ms. Piyatida (Tung) Pukclai mentioned that the hazardous substance law is also being revised. Vietnam is preparing to establish its own chemical inventory/database. Currently, Vietnam is still collecting information and it is estimated that the chemical inventory will be published in 2018. Chemical regulations in the Philippines have not been updated recently. However, new imported chemical products may still have to comply with PMPIN and SQI. Indonesia is now preparing to establish a national database. By taking into consideration of the definition of GHS, more substances may be considered as toxic or hazardous. New substances shall also be assessed before they are put into market. Laos is also trying to establish its own chemical inventory and it will also tighten the management of hazardous chemicals.

Mr. Dean Apostolou (left) and Ms. Yan Li (right)

During the summit meeting, CIRS announced the strategic cooperation on the development of the ChemAlert. ChemAlert leverages digitisation to enable clients to reduce costs, improve compliance and rapidly respond to global market changes.