In this article, CHEMTREC provides a snapshot of the complex emergency telephone number requirements around the world and points out the challenges of complying with ever-changing supply and transport requirements for emergency response provision.

On August 10, 2023, the Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officially published an announcement concerning three substances newly listed as prohibited substances at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-11), as the Class I Specified Chemical Substances in the Chemical Substances Control Law.

On July 21, 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Environment published Notice No. 2023-436 to partly revise the enforcement rules of the Chemical Substances Control Act. This revision primarily aims to address challenges faced by hazardous chemical operators with less than 30 employees in attracting professional talents and to improve shortcomings in the existing system.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), in collaboration with the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, is seeking public comments on the List of Toxic and Hazardous Water Pollutants (Second Batch). This is 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, protect public health, and the ecological environment.

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 will 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.

On July 11, 2023, Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration released the draft amendments on Permit Registration and Approval Regulations for Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances.