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Korea Economic Daily, a media outlet in South Korea reported that the chemical industry is facing difficulties revolving around compliance with the Chemical Control Act[1] (CCA), as the maximum applicable 5-year grace period comes to an end. In response to industry concerns, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) issued a statement [2] on May 15th, 2019.
CCA came into force on Jan 1st, 2015 for the purpose of controlling hazardous substances and avoiding chemical accidents. According to transitional measures provided in the Enforcement Rules of CCA[3], the grace period varies in different situations. The industry has up to a 5-year grace period to comply with the specific requirements under CCA, including permission management of hazardous chemicals, preparation and submission of off-site impact assessment report and risk management plan, management of handling facilities, etc.
During the implementation of CCA, a lot of violations have been found by the MoE. To relieve the industry, the MoE in 2017 offered 6 months (Nov 2017~ May 2018) to the manufacturers and importers of hazardous chemicals to voluntarily notify breaches of the previous Toxic Chemicals Control Act (TCCA, the precursor of CCA) and the current CCA (CL news[4]). According to the statistics from MoE, 10,026 enterprises has voluntarily notified their breaches, involving 186,389 cases. Most of them (about 98.8%) can be rectified to ensure compliance with CCA before the deadline. 9,651 enterprises (186,200 breaches) issued notifications on failure to submit “written confirmation of details for chemical product[5]” and application for notification/permission of manufacture/import activities, etc.
In a previous interview[6] with Mr. Pyeong-Jae Park, the president of Busan Noksan Plating Industry Association, he addressed concerns relating to the prohibitively negative impact of the CCA compliance requirements on the plating enterprises. Many plating enterprises are SMEs and they are facing bankruptcy next year as the deadline approaches.
According to the authority, there has been adequate support for small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure smooth compliance, e.g. 8 public seminars and 12 on-site visits in 2018. Statistics showed that 2,707 small-sized enterprises with less than 50 full-time staff have relevant permissions. Regardless of all this, SMEs are still rushing to comply with CCA.
Some enterprises questioned if the equipment self-inspection is necessary and complained that the seismic design is costly. The ministry emphasized that the equipment standards set in CCA are necessary for preventing and minimizing chemical accidents. Considering the fact that in the last three years (2016-2018), 30 out of 140 chemical accidents (21.4%) occurred due to problems with piping and valves, it is necessary to do self-inspection of handling facilities. In addition, seismic design is necessary to prevent hazardous chemical substances from being exposed and leaking due to tectonic activity. The requirements are not new since they have been introduced in the Dangerous Materials Safety Management Act. Statistics showed that with increased awareness of safety management in the workplace, the qualification rate of facilities inspection increased from 68.2% (Year 2015) to 88.1% (Year 2018).
| *68.2%(2015) → 79.9%(2016) → 82.5%(2017) → 88.1%(2018) |
Under CCA, all enterprises intending to install and operate handling facilities for hazardous chemicals shall prepare an off-site impact assessment report that evaluates the impact of potential chemical accidents on the surrounding environment and population. The MoE listed 77 specialized agencies [7] that create environmental reports for off-site impact assessments. The report can also be prepared by a person in charge of the workplace after taking certain courses.
