The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in collaboration with the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, compiled the List of Toxic and Hazardous Water Pollutants (Second Batch) for public comments, in accordance with the requirements of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People’s Republic of China. The aim of this list is to prevent environmental risks, and protect public health and the ecological environment.

Recently, India has made a significant decision that it will enforce stringent quality control order on Polypropylene (PP) materials for moulding and extrusion as well as Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) homopolymers. In accordance with the latest quality control order, PP and PVC should be included in the BIS mandatory certification list, to ensure that domestically produced and imported PP and PVC products meet stringent requirements and to offer consumers safer and more reliable products.

On August 1, 2023, South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) has amended its toxic substance list in Notice No. 2023-41, in accordance with the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH) and the Korean Chemical Control Act.

On August 8, 2023, the European Commission published the Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1608 to amend the European Union Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), by listing perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts and PFHxS-related compounds in Annex I to the EU POPs Regulation. The Regulation shall come into effect on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal and will be applicable in all Member States.

On June 18, 2023, the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) published a Notice on amending the guidance for volatile organic compounds content, containers, and labels. In this Notice, exemptions for the following four substances used as lacquer thinners were partly canceled.