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In recent years, Vietnam is prospering and attracts more and more International attention. The manufacturing sector is growing steadily in Vietnam, however the development of the chemical industry is still not enough to satisfy domestic demand. While importing large quantities and various kinds of chemical substances, more and more chemical companies are setting up facilities in Vietnam, which brings great challenges to Vietnam's chemical management systems.
Since the Law on Chemicals was issued in 2007, Vietnam has been developing a modern chemical regulatory system, but there is not a completed national chemical inventory yet. Speaking at CRAC 2020, Mr. Dinh Thanh Nghia from E&H Consulting Co., Ltd. brought the latest updates on chemical regulations and the National Chemical Inventory in Vietnam to the attendees.
National Chemical Inventory
The Vietnam National Chemical Inventory (NCI) is the overall list of existing chemical substances in Vietnam. It is still in its draft status, but it can be queried on the Vietnam National Chemical Database website. The first draft of NCI was published in 2016, which included 4,927 substances. In 2020, the nomination window of NCI was opened twice, the latest and the last nomination period will conclude on April 15th, 2021. Before that day, Vietnamese enterprises could propose substance supplementation to NCI by submitting the chemical name, CAS number, SDS, and approved documents that the chemicals are being used in Vietnam (i.e. purchase contract, invoices, etc.)
By October of 2020, there have been 41,307 substances in the draft NCI, but majority of them have not been approved. There are 3 statuses for substances in NCI, lack of evidence, under examination, and approved. According to the data shown in Mr. Dinh Thanh Nghia’s speech, there are only 8889 substances that have been approved, which is about one-fifth of all. The rest of the substances are in the lack evidence status. For this, Mr. Dinh Thanh Nghia gave 3 main reasons, namely, that these chemicals are:
Without attachment of evidence (import invoices, etc.);
Lack of information in SDS; or,
With an unappropriated chemical name.
Stakeholders shall start their nomination work as early as possible and keep concerning the status of the substances to ensure their substances will be successfully included in NCI before the nomination window is closed.
Amendments to Chemical Regulations
It has been 14 years since the Law on Chemicals issued in 2007 and reflecting on that Mr. Dinh Thanh Nghia mentioned that “there are many problems with the Law and regulated regulations” during his speech. The Vietnam Chemical Agency has held a seminar at Hanoi to collect comments from companies and organizations for the purpose of review and evaluation of Vietnam Law on Chemical this September. After 14 years, the Law and related regulations will usher in overall revision in 2021, with the proposed key points of the amendment including the following:
Completion of national chemical inventory (NCI) based on evaluation of chemical risk
Management of the life cycle of chemical substances
Emphasizing chemical safety by enacting technical standards for chemical safety and applying evaluation of risk for chemical facilities
Application of evaluation of chemical risk
Management of chemical substances in products, including regulating chemical content in products, regulating banned chemicals, and applying evaluation of chemical risk for products;
Development of chemical industry
Management of dual-use chemical substances
In addition, Mr. Dinh Thanh Nghia introduced the roles of several national authorities in chemical management and their current efforts. For instances, the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MONRE) is currently preparing a draft regulation for pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR), and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is currently preparing technical standards on labor, occupational safety and health in using of hazardous substances.
ChemLinked will continue to analyze the latest news of the chemical regulatory dynamics in Vietnam.
* The materials (video and ppt) of the presentation are available now. You can click here to register our CRAC-HCF Forum and then go to the download section of the Live Conference Hall to get them if there is a need.
