China has one of the world’s most important hazardous chemical manufacturing bases. According to 2016 data, there are nearly 300 thousand hazardous chemical enterprises. Over 18 thousand enterprises are manufacturers of hazardous chemicals. The chemical blast in Tianjin on Aug 12th 2015 was a major wakeup call for China’s chemical industry and precipitated huge debate, discussion and reform in regards to management of hazardous chemicals throughout their lifecycle.
In the wake of this disaster the State Council started a special campaign on the management of hazardous chemicals and assigned specific duties to various governmental branches. At REACH24H’s Chemical Regulatory Annual Conference (CRAC 2017) on Nov 2nd, Mr. Jinhe Chen from the National Registration Center for Chemicals (NRCC) under the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) talked about some work that NRCC has done in recent times:
Some important regulations that SAWS is working on include:
The Law on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (the Law has been drafted but not published yet);
The Identification of Major Danger Sources of Hazardous Chemicals;
Chemical enterprise startup requirements and technical requirements on enterprises involved with hazardous Chemicals;
Inventory of Very Hazardous Chemicals; etc.
The main goal of SAWS is to control the risks of hazardous chemicals more effectively without imposing overly prohibitive economic and regulatory constraints on industry. Mr. Chen praised the Inventory of Prohibited, limited & Controlled Hazardous Chemicals that Shanghai established and encouraged other local governments to learn from their experience. Mr. Chen also mentioned the “black list” system for hazardous chemicals enterprises. Enterprise that violate regulations frequently will be added to the list and subject to stricter and more frequent random inspections.
NRCC is responsible for hazardous chemicals registration. Mr. Chen talked about some breaches in practical cases. Enterprise not only should register their hazardous chemicals to NRCC, but also have to update their registrations when new hazards are discovered about their hazardous chemicals. Many enterprises neglected the latter requirement and were penalized.
Mr. Chen also clarified the confusion about which chemicals should be registered and permitted. It can be summarized as the following table:
Compliance duties | Chemical in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals | Chemical NOT in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals |
Hazards identification and classification | GHS classification (GB 30000 series) | Physical hazards identification and classification (SAWS Order 60) (See ChemLinked webinar on Physical hazards identification and classification); Health hazards identification and classification; Environmental hazards identification and classification. |
Registration | Hazardous chemicals registration (SAWS Order 53) | Based on the identification results. It should be registered if identified as hazardous chemical. |
Permit | Safe production permit (SAWS Order 41); Operation permit (SAWS Order 55); Safe use permit (SAWS Order 57). | Apply for permits if concentration of hazardous chemicals is above 70%; No need for permits if concentration of hazardous chemicals is below 70%. |
However, the hazardous chemical has a very broad scope. There are over 2,800 hazardous chemicals listed in the Catalogue alone. SAWS felt overwhelmed and unnecessary about the redundant permission work. Mr. Chen also revealed that the permits scope will be narrowed down and focus on flammable, explosive chemicals and chemicals with acute toxicity.
An analysis of cross sector policy reforms in China shows an overriding trend towards decentralization of administrative power. Mr. Chen emphasized that this trend would not apply to management of hazardous chemicals, especially the registration of hazardous chemicals. Law enforcement would also be reinforced and the penalties for violations would be increased.
