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Recently, the draft Law on Safety of Hazardous Chemicals, a legislation poised to regulate China’s hazardous chemicals in place of Decree 591, was submitted for deliberation at the executive meeting of the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM).
Compared to the third draft [1] which was published in October last year, major highlights in the proposed draft remain the same, yet with some changes made in certain specific rules.
Adjustments are made to the responsibilities of authorities. In the proposed draft, for instance, the people’s governments at or above the county level (rather than the administration of transport, as per the third draft) shall strengthen underpinnings for safe transport of hazardous chemicals, and properly plan logistics parks, among others, which involve the storage, loading and unloading and transport of hazardous chemicals. Meanwhile, provincial-level governments are involved in the establishment of hazardous chemical information management systems along with the State Council.
Notably, multiple requirements concerning environmental impacts are removed from the proposed draft. For example, in the part dedicated to chemical parks, the third draft required that “a safety risk evaluation report and an environmental impact assessment report of park planning shall be submitted for the establishment of chemical parks” and that “the people’s governments of municipalities which have subordinate districts shall conduct a safety risk evaluation and environmental impact assessment for planning of chemical parks within their jurisdiction every five year”. The proposed draft retains only requirements on safety risk evaluation, which presumably aims to focus more on safety issues.
There are also some new additions in the proposed draft. For example, it makes clear that non-chemical enterprises are prohibited from manufacturing or operating within chemical parks, and that taking public transportation while illegally carrying flammable and explosive hazardous chemicals is banned as well.
In the proposed draft, besides hazardous chemical manufacturers, hazardous chemical importers will also be held legally responsible if they do not comply with provisions on SDS and labeling.
Moreover, according to the proposed draft, in addition to precursor chemicals as well as monitored chemicals, medicines, pesticides and veterinary drugs which fall under the scope of hazardous chemicals, the safety regulation of oil and gas drilling will also be subject to this Law.
Sources say that the official version of the Law is expected to come out within two years. ChemLinked will keep a close watch on any update.
