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Thailand’s chemical management framework encompasses a range of laws and regulations, which are designed to ensure the safe and responsible handling, storage, transportation, and disposal of chemicals. Among these laws and regulations, the key chemical control legislation – Hazardous Substance Act (HSA) plays a pivotal role in safeguarding human health and the environment from the potential adverse impacts of chemicals in Thailand.
Speaking at ChemCon Europe held in Vienna on October 26, 2023, Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay from Thailand’s Department of Industrial Works (DIW) introduced recent developments, challenges, and future trends of Thailand’s chemical management under the HSA. Highlights are summarized below.
Developments and challenges
To lay the groundwork for differentiated management of new and existing chemical substances in Thailand, the DIW collected information on chemicals used in the country and announced the inventory of existing chemicals in 2016 and 2020. However, Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay noted that, this inventory currently has no legal impact on businesses in Thailand. It serves solely as a basic database for the risk assessment of existing chemicals. Only chemicals listed in the Hazardous Substance List (hereinafter referred to as the List) are subject to HSA.
According to Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay, the DIW has been making efforts to study and develop the criteria for prioritizing existing chemicals in the inventory based on their intrinsic hazards and exposure risk. Such prioritization could do a favor for the suitability of the currently controlled hazardous substances in the List. She also pointed out that the DIW would take priority for developing more appropriate controls for substances outside the List, which are likely to be of high priority in the future.
To address the challenges in chemical risk assessment, the Thai government initiated a project in this regard in 2022. This project was strewn with difficulties due to the lack of relevant chemical information and personnel with expertise in chemical risk assessment, as stated by Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay. Additionally, the incorporation of chemical risk assessment into the current framework for supervising chemicals outside the List has progressed slower than expected. She stressed that the Hazardous Substance Committee led by the DIW planned to amend the Hazardous Substance Act to enable chemical management based on risk assessment.
Regarding the long-waited Chemical Substance Act, Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay mentioned that, there’s no more progress after the public consultation on its fourth draft in 2021. She said, there wouldn’t be significant changes to Thailand’s current chemical management in the near future.
Future trends
Given the global attention to the management of PFASs, the Thai government is also considering taking steps to gradually regulate them. In December 2022, eight PFOA-related substances were designated as Type 3 or Type 4 hazardous substances under the HSA, leading to the imposition of a destruction order on these substances in early 2023. Ms. Thanatorn Yoadsomsuay shared that new POPs regulated under the Stockholm Conventions (e.g., PFHxS, a type of PFAS chemicals) would be included in Annex 5 of the List as Type 3 or Type 4 hazardous substances in the next year or beyond. Moreover, the labeling and classification of hazardous substances in Thailand is expected to be aligned with GHS Rev.7, replacing GHS Rev.3.
