On 22 Oct 2018, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued 8 batches of regular notifications (click here to access batch 2-batch 9) and 15 batches of simplified notifications (click here to access batch 4-batch 18) that have been approved in 2018.
In total 94 regular notifications have been approved this time, of which most new substances were classified as “hazardous of priority environmental concern” (45%, see chart below). So far, more than a quarter of the notified new substances are classified as “hazardous new chemical substances of priority environmental concern”. Whether or not the current classification criteria using GHS classification for environmental management category is reasonable has been discussed with regards to the revision of MEP Order 7 (Measures for the Environmental Management of New Chemical Substances). There is speculation about new classification criteria in the future. MEE also issued the modification details of registration certificates previously approved. Based on the regular notification data collected, the details are specified as in Table 1.
Table 1. Regular Notification Statistics (batch 2-batch 9 approved)
| Number of regular notifications approved | Number of modified certificates approved |
Batch 2 | 1 | 0 |
Batch 3 | 19 | 6 |
Batch 4 | 9 | 3 |
Batch 5 | 16 | 5 |
Batch 6 | 12 | 0 |
Batch 7 | 11 | 3 |
Batch 8 | 14 | 2 |
Batch 9 | 12 | 8 |
In total | 94 | 27 |
For the simplified notifications (see Table 2), most were notified through special case of simplified notification (6 special cases). The others were notified through general case of simplified notification, namely the new substance is manufactured/imported in quantities below 1 tonne per annum.
Table 2. Simplified Notification Statistics (batch 4-batch 18 approved)
SN Type | Batch 4 | Batch 5 | Batch 6 | Batch 7 | Batch 8 | Batch 9 | Batch 10 | Batch 11 | Batch 12 | Batch 13 | Batch 14 | Batch 15 | Batch 16 | Batch 17 | Batch 18 | |
General Case | 26 | 24 | 2 | 24 | 3 | 29 | 23 | 36 | 33 | 40 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 24 | 1 | |
Special Case | Intermediate<1 t/y | o | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
Manufacture for export only, in quantities<1t/y | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
Polymers of Low Concern | 18 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 9 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 41 | 15 | 17 | |
Polymers with low new chemical substances concentration of monomer which is<2% | 80 | 34 | 60 | 47 | 88 | 64 | 44 | 61 | 55 | 75 | 50 | 48 | 156 | 71 | 74 | |
Scientific research in quantities of 0.1-1 t/y | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
PPORD<10 t/y | 17 | 5 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 2 | |
In Total | 144 | 71 | 106 | 93 | 129 | 117 | 94 | 141 | 116 | 143 | 84 | 81 | 217 | 133 | 100 | |
