The Measures for the Environmental Management of Hazardous Chemical Registration (Trial), MEP Order 22, has been released on 10 Oct 2012 and shall come into effect since 1 Mar 2013. The Measures classifies hazardous chemicals into hazardous chemicals of priority environmental concern (HCPECs) and the general hazardous chemicals. On 31 Oct 2012, the Chinese official at the Open Seminaron Chemicals focusing on Management Policies among China, Japan and Korea has clarified some issues concerning MEP Order 22. The must-know information is collected from the seminar and organized into a Q&A format.
Q: Stipulated in the MEP Order 22, the enterprises have already handled hazardous chemicals prior to its promulgation can enjoy a three-year grace period. Does it mean the registration deadline is 1 Mar 2016?
A: Although mentioned in the Measures, not every HC company will be granted a three-year grace period. It is mentioned that for different types of comapnies the MEP will release notice specifying the length of the grace period, after which, only the companies holding the environmental management registration can engage in production, use, import and export of hazardous chemicals.
Q: MEP Order 22 requires the environmental risk assessment report, shall it be made according to the Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment issued by the MEP previously?
A: As for the HCPECs, companies shall entrust qualified institutions to prepare the environmental risk assessment report when applying for a registration certificate This is different from the risk assessment report required by the Measures for the Administration of Hazardous Chemicals Regulation (SAWS Order 53). The MEP is about to release a particular technical guideline for the environmental impact assessment of hazardous chemicals. The environmental risk assessment under the MEP Order 22 shall be made according to it.
Q: When will the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals of Priority Environmental Concern be released?
A: The Catalogue of HCPECs will be screened out from the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals and released in batches. The batches are expected to be published before the implementation of the Measures.
Q: What’s the difference between new hazardous substances with priority environmental concern under MEP order No.7 and hazardous chemicals of priority environmental concern under the MEP Order 22?
A: Compared with the new hazardous substances with priority environmental concern under the Measures for the Environmental Management of New Chemical Substances (MEP Order 7), the management of the HCPECs under MEP Order 22 mentioned above is different. There’s a possibility that the new hazardous substance with priority concern registered under Regular Notification will be merged into the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals of Priority Environmental Concern after it is listed into the IECSC. While whether the new hazardous substance with priority concern can beincluded in the IECSC should be evaluated by the expert committee of the MEP. The committee makes the decisions based on the actual activity report submitted no less than 6 months before the end of the 5-year period dated from the first day of the substance's manufacture or import. Figure1 presents the relationship of the two types of hazardous chemicals.
Figure 1. Illustration of the Relationship between the New Chemical Substance with Priority Envrionmental Concern under MEP Order 7 and the HCPECs under MEP Order 22.
Q: The expansion construction of production projects for the hazardous chemicals shall apply for the certificate prior to the project completion. What if the enterprise has been in the stage of pilot production and missed the time for registration?
A: The certificate for environmental management of hazardous chemicals has a validation period of 3 years. Reconstruction, new and expanded construction of production projects for the hazardous chemicals shall apply for the certificate prior to the project completion. There would be some implementation guidelines to clarify these existing issues soon.
Q: As for the registration certificate, is it one certificate for one hazardous substance?
A: No. The registration certificate is issued for the whole company with all the hazardous substances listed on it. This is the so-called "one certificate for the whole company" principle.
Q: If a company handled both the HCPECs and other general hazardous chemicals, how can it apply for the environmental management registration?
A: The local environmental protection administrations (EPAs) above county level are responsible for the environmental management of the hazardous chemicals registration. The manufacturers and enterprises using the hazardous chemicals listed in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals should apply to the local EPA at county level for Production/Use Registration. For the HCPECs, if the submitted materials are sufficient, an on-site inspection will be conducted by the EPA at municipal level, after which the EPAs at provincial level will organize a technical evaluation.Upon receive approval from the evaluation, the registration certificate for the HCPECs will be issued by the EPA at provincial level. However, for the general hazardous chemicals, there will be no on-site inspection and the registration certificate can be obtained after the re-examination by the EPA at municipal level. Since one registration certificate is issued for the whole company with all the hazardous substances listed on it, , even if the company has only one substance characterized as the HCPEC, it will need to get the certificate from the EPA at provincial level after the on-site inspection and technical review by experts. The registration procedure is displayed in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Registration Procedure for general hazardous chemicals and HCPECs
