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With the implementation of “Regulation on the Control over safety of Hazardous Chemicals (Decree 591)” on 1 December 2011, China has entered a new stage of management on hazardous chemicals. As stipulated in the Decree 591, the environmental Protection authority shall be responsible for the environmental management registration on HCs. Thus, the “MEP Order No 22: Measures for the Environmental Management of Hazardous Chemical Registration (Trial)" was drafted and approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). The legal text was published on 10 Oct 2012 and the measureｓ will take effect on 1 Mar 2012.
Differences between the MEP Order 22 and the SAWS Order 53
With the development of China’s Chemical legal system, the work safety and regulatory compliance have increasingly become a concern for HC companies. Since the promulgation of the “Measures for the Environmental Management of Hazardous Chemical Registration (Trial)”, REACH24H has recieved numerous inquiries from HC companies. The majority of these queries focus on the difference between the MEP Order No 22 and the SAWS Order 53 .
MEP Order No 22 and SAWS Order 53 are independently implemented by the MEP and the SAWS, respectively. As the MEP and the SAWS are distinct in their functions, the registrations under the two Measures are different in subject entities, scopes, and dossiers, etc. Therefore, some of the HC companies need to apply for both the “Hazardous Chemicals Registration” and the “Environmental Management of Hazardous Chemical Registration”. The similarities and the differences between the two measures are summarized in the following table.
MEP Order No. 22 | SAWS Order No. 53 | |
Competent Authority | MEP | SAWS |
Aim | To reinforce the environmental management on the HCs. Prevention and reduction of the harm of the HCs on the environment and human health; Prevention of the environmental risks caused by the HCs | To establish a powerful database of HCs by adopting the internationally accepted registration system on HCs; To provide technical and information support for management on HCs, accident prevention and emergency rescue. |
Affected Companies |
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Scope |
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Information Submitted |
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Environmental Registration of HC Manufacturers and Users
Gradient supervisions will be imposed on HC manufacturers and users. That is, the HCs subject to environmental registration are classified into the general HCs and the hazardous chemical of priority environmental concern (HCPEC). Generally, the hazardous chemicals listed in the "Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals of Priority Environmental Concern" (HCPEC) will be identified as HCPECs. The MEP will formulate the Catalogue based on the hazard properties and environmental risk levels of the hazardous chemicals, by selecting from the “Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals"(Chinese "C&L Inventory"). Chemicals with the following characters are most likely to be listed in the HCPEC list:
Chemicals persistent bio-accumulative and toxic, the PBTs;
Chemicals very persistent and very bio-accumulative, the vPvBs;
Chemicals with endocrine disruptive property, the endocrine disruptors, EDC;
Chemicals with significant environmental risks shown by sufficient evidence;
If the HCs were listed in the HCPEC list, the registration procedure will be more complex and more stringent supervision will be imposed on the companies.
More Complicated Procedures and Time Consuming
Usually, the county-level environmental protection authorities receive the application and dossiers from the general HC companies and the city-level authorities will review the dossiers and issue the registration certification to the companies. However, the companies of HCPECs will additionally receive the on-site verification launched by the city environmental authorities and the preliminary results will be submitted to the provincial-level authorities. The provincial authorities will check the results and issue the registration certification to the HCPEC companies.More Requirements on Dossier Preparation
Besides the materials required for HC companies, the HCPEC companies are required to conduct the environmental risk assessment (ERA) and appoint the qualified agency for producing the ERA report. THE ERA reporting personnel are trained and test-assessed by the environmental protection authorities. MEP will preferentially choose some ERA reporting agencies and publish the name of the agencies.More Post-Registration Obligations
For better control of the environmental risk caused by the HCs, the MEP required that the HCs companies to release the annual report of Environmental management on HCs in January every year. The annual report contains information such as category, hazardous characters, pollutant emissions & discharges, incidents and pollutant control measures of their HC-related operations. Furthermore, the HCPEC registrants must further report to the authorities annually about the emission, migration and monitoring result of particular pollutants, as well as their control measures over the pollutants and the environmental risk.
Environmental Management Registration of Importation/Exportation
If the HCs were included in the "List of Toxic Chemicals Severely Restricted for Import and Export in China (2012)", the importers/exporters are required to apply for environmental management registration. This is not the first time that China imposes such obligation on the HC importers/exporters. According to the “Regulation of Environmental Management on the Import and Export of Toxic Chemicals”, importing/exporting companies of the "List of Toxic Chemicals Severely Restricted for Import and Export in China" shall apply for the environmental management registration, including: “registration certification of Environmental Management on the Import of chemicals”, the “Clearance Notification for Environmental Management on the Import of Toxic Chemicals” and the “Clearance Notification for the Environmental Management on the Export of Toxic Chemicals”.
Conclusion
The MEP Order No 22 stipulated that the HC companies who failed to register to the environmental authorities will be subject to penalties. In serious circumstances, their application of pollutant emission permits would be rejected or environmental verification would be voted down. Meanwhile, their misbehavior might be noticed to Financial or Securities regulators. The impact would not only be financial but reputational. The HC companies are urged to adapt themselves to the MEP Order No 22. REACH24H advice the companies to have a better understanding of the chemicals involved in their activities and sort out the category of the HCs and get early start of data collection.
This article is contributed by Christine Xu and Fang Lin.
