The official Administrative Measures on physical hazard identification and classification for chemicals (SAWS Order 60) has recently been signed by China SAWS director on Jul 10 and will be enforced from Sep 1, 2013, following almost six month of feedback analysis and legislative review since a draft proposal was released in last Dec(see Chemlinked news on 7 Dec 2012).
Supporting document for hazardous chemicals registration
According to the SAWS Order 60, all Chinese based chemical manufacturers and importers are obliged to conduct the physical hazard identification and classification (PHI&C) for their chemical products that meet conditions specified in the document. Once a chemical with uncertain physical hazard is found to be hazardous, it must be registered in compliance with the SAWS Order 53 and supplied with proper GHS label and SDS. The ordinance provides primary legal backup for the identification and assessment of chemicals with unknown physical hazards, which has been considered an important part under China’s mandatory campaign of hazardous chemicals registration (c.f. SAWS Order 53, Article 12).
Comparison with the draft version
Overall, the finalized text has gone through massive cuts and adjustments of sequence, with an obvious intention to weaken the administrative harshness of the draft and to ease the regulatory burden over affected companies. Some noteworthy changes could be summarized in the following list:
The PHI&C highlights chemicals with uncertain physical hazards that are manufactured or imported for R&D purposes with a turnout or usage threshold above 1 ton/year. (Please consult article 4 in the table below).
Companies failing to establish the internal PHI&C management record system are to be penalized. (Article 19)
Companies are allowed to assess a group of similar chemicals through a new application mode called ”serial modification“ (Article 21).
Provisions on the management of accredited assessment institutes and their qualification are deleted.
Principal rules of physical hazard identification and classification for chemicals
Other key provisions in the Administrative Measures are displayed in the following table.
Article | Items | Legal prescription |
3 | Definition of chemicals, physical hazard identification, physical hazard classification | Chemical – substance, compound and their mixtures |
PHI -- identification of hazardous properties including flammability, explosiveness, causticity, combustion-supporting, self-reaction and reaction-in-contact-with water etc., through tests or judgment according to China national or industry standards. | ||
PHC -- assessment of physical hazard identification results or of referred data according to China national or industry standards, according to which, the physical hazard classification of the chemical can be determined. | ||
4 | PHI&C subject scope: three categories of chemicals with uncertain physical hazards: | 1) which contain one or more composition substances listed in the HazChem Catalogue |
2) which are not listed in the HazChem Catalogue but with uncertain physical hazards | ||
22 | Supplementary rule on PHI&C subject scope | In case new physical hazard properties are found in a chemical listed in the HazChem Catalogue, the PHI&C rules should be applied. |
5&6 | Official support for the PHI&C | A technical committee to be established by the SAWS and will be responsible for the arbitration of disputed PHI&C results. |
A list of accredited assessment institutes to be announced and maintained by the SAWS. A list of chemicals exempt from the PHI&C requirements will be announced and maintained by the SAWS. | ||
A national PHI&C management platform to be set up by the NRCC-SWAS to provide industry technical guidance and operate the technical committee. | ||
8 | Chemical information investigation | Manufacturers and importers are obliged to carry out internal investigations on their chemical hazards and submit the PHI&C application to SAWS-accredited assessment institutes. |
9 | Pysical Hazard Identification application procedures | Assessment institutes issues Identification report within 20 days from the receipt of the application plus samples submitted by chemical companies |
10 | Pysical Hazard Identification testing | Identification report should include the 16 GHS physical hazards and other properties e.g. vapor pressure, self-ignition temperature, stability and reactivity, etc. |
14 | Physical Hazard Classification assessment | The classification report is to be submitted to the NRCC from the chemical company based on the conclusion of Identification report; NRCC has 30 days to issue review opinions on the classification result. |
16 | PHI&C management record system | Chemical companies obliged to keep record of their PHI&C management information, including data for chemicals with known physical hazards, PHI&C reports related documents, and other data for chemicals not assessed yet (name, volume, etc.) |
17 | SDS and Label requirements | Chemical companies obliged to compile SDSs and labels for identified HazChems as well as for those listed as exempt from the PHI&C requirement, and also register their HazChems after identification. |
21 | Two application modes: Serial vs. Joint | Joint application – filing a joint application among multiple chemical companies |
19 | Penalties of noncompliance |
