By the MoEL Announcement No. 2024-162, South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor (MoEL) made public the list of registered and assessed new chemical substances under K-OSHA in 2024 Q1. It contains the corresponding information, including chemical name, CAS number, hazards, annual quantity, precautionary measures that must be taken to guarantee workers’ health, etc.
The list comprises 71 new chemical substances, among which 27, including “lead, dross, antimony-rich” and “flue dust, lead refining”, have been found to possess hazards such as acute toxicity, carcinogenicity, and reproductive toxicity. The hazards are determined according to the revised Standards for Classification and Labeling of Chemical Substances and Material Safety Data Sheet, based on the toxicity data submitted by registrants. Details can be accessed here.
The hazards and risks should be indicated on MSDS and displayed in the workplace. For some new substances, although there are no hazards indicated in the list, in consideration of long or short-term exposure, employers still need to provide basic measures to protect workers’ health.
Background In South Korea, companies should register new chemical substances under both K-REACH and K-OSHA prior to manufacture or import activities. K-REACH covers all new chemical substances regardless of quantities while under K-OSHA new substances < 0.1 t/y are exempt from registration. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) is responsible for K-REACH registration and transfers the data required under K-OSHA to the MoEL for assessment. The MoEL and the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) under MoE periodically publish the list of registered new chemical substances under K-OSHA and K-REACH respectively. The last update by the MoEL was made on December 28, 2023 (see MoEL Announcement No.2023-612). |
