Photo taken by ChemLinked reporter Olivia Sun at ChemCon Asia on 10 Sep, 2013.
Management over hazardous chemicals in China is a topic of lasting interest. On Day one of Chemcon Asia 2013 conference, as the first speaker and the only speaker from China government on the expert panel of the China session, Dr. Liu Qiang, Deputy Director General of Safety Supervision, State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) combed the regulatory framework of the hazardous chemicals management and a full range of compliance activities under the Regulation on the Control over the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (a.k.a Decree 591). The most recent progress of the revised inventory of hazardous chemicals was also unveiled in front of a houseful of conference delegates.
Hierarchical legislative framework in China
In Dr. Liu's presentation, the 4 hierarchical levels of legislation in China are elucidated with their examples.
1st Level: Legislative document promulgated by the National People's Congress or the Standing Committee of NPC. i.e. Work Safety Law of People's Republic of China;
2nd Level: Administrative regulations issued by the State Council, i.e. Decree 591 which covers the whole life cycle of the hazardous chemicals;
3rd Level: Ministerial rules promulgated by ministries under the State Council. i.e. SAWS Order 53 (Dr. Liu stated that 8 ministerial rules have been already published by SAWS to support the implementation of Decree 591)
4th Level: Technical standards including national standards (GB) and industrial standard (AQ)
Inventory of hazardous chemicals and the registration system
Dr. Liu made the statement that the management system over hazardous chemicals has been preliminarily established in China by briefing a full range of subsystems underneath, including the review system for safety conditions of production and storage construction projects relating to hazardous chemicals (SAWS Order 45); license system on safety production of hazardous chemicals (SAWS Order 41); license system for distribution of hazardous chemicals (SAWS Order 55); permit system for safe use of hazardous chemicals (SAWS Order 57 stipulates that chemical companies which use hazardous chemicals for production are required to obtain the permit, if the quantities exceed certain amount); safety evaluation system as well as the registration system.
The revised inventory of hazardous chemicals has always been the attention grabber since the release of the SAWS Order 53. Dr. Liu commented that the inventory is very crucial since it will serve as a very important criteria and basis for China's chemical safety management and supervision. Stipulated under Decree 591, the revised inventory needs to be consulted among 10 ministries under the State Council. Now the SAWS has been working together with officials and experts from other ministries on the draft of the inventory.
Dr. Liu revealed that the much-awaited catalogue of hazardous chemicals will probably be issued in Oct as draft for public consultation when questioned by one industry representative. However, the concrete date would not be provided. He said that SAWS is working on developing the inventory with several ministries and next week a meeting would be held, after which, he hoped, consensus could be achieved on the draft among the difference ministries. (see Chemlinked news release on 18 Apr 2013)
Format of the inventory to be published was displayed in the presentation, with information of Serial No, Chinese name, Alias name, CAS No, as well as the special note. The special note column indicates whether a chemical is hyper toxic or not.
Other detailed information would be published in a follow-up guidance document, including the hazard category, UN code, pictogram, etc, to help the industry to fully understand and comply easily. (see Chemlinked news release on 29 Sep 2013)
Dr. Liu addressed the industry's attention on the registration system especially after the release of the revised Measures SAWS Order 53. Under the old system, over 20,000 companies with 3,000 substances have been registered. Compared with its previous version, SAWS Order 53 included both manufacturer and importer to be subject to the registration obligation. Meanwhile, more detailed requirements on the registration work have been elucidated. NRCC-SAWS is mainly responsible for the detailed registration work. The practical registration work would involve an upgraded registration IT system. Detailed registration procedures could be consulted with the ChemLinked webinar on China HazChem registration on May, 2013.
