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.

Enterprises face significant challenges in chemical compliance due to the frequent updates of chemical regulations and the numerous regulatory lists issued by different authorities, particularly in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. To help chemical companies better understand these regulations, their compliance risks and regulatory obligations in APAC countries, the CIRS Group has developed ChemRadar, which integrates our existing Asia-Pacific Chemical Inventory Search System (APCISS) tool and provides some useful new features. On August 18, we are pleased to officially launch this free-to-use tool!

On February 15, this year, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published an announcement that national enforcement authorities have started compliance inspections (REF-11) on safety data sheets (SDS) for chemicals sold on the EU market. This project was prepared in 2022 and the main purpose is to evaluate whether SDSs have been updated in compliance with the new requirements of Annex II of REACH. These inspections will be carried out throughout the year as a unified enforcement project. The results will be made public in 2024.

During the 44th Session of the Sub-Committee of Experts on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, Austria, the EU, Finland, Germany and the UK proposed revising Chapter 4.2 by adding the new hazard category related to global warming listed in the annexes to the Montreal Protocol. If the proposal is approved, the new classifications would be Hazardous to the Atmospheric System, which encompass both: Hazardous to the ozone layer; and Hazardous by contributing to global warming.

In July 2023, EPA published reporting and record-keeping requirements for asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The rule requires enterprises who manufactured (including imported) or processed asbestos and asbestos-containing articles (including as an impurity) in the last four years to report certain exposure-related information.

In accordance with the Measures for Environmental Management Registration of New Chemical Substances (hereinafter referred to as the “MEE Order 12”), China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has approved a total of eight simplified registration applications for new chemical substances after review, and all these applications meet relevant requirements and are approved to conduct regular registrations.