On 5 August, the China SAWS announced on its website that methanol-gasoline would be added to the forthcoming revised edition of the 2002 Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals. The announcement has been made in a response to the work safety agency of north China’s cotton and oil production base Henan Province.
The SAWS said that neither methanol gasoline nor alcohol-based mixed fuels have been listed in the 2002 Catalogue but confirmed the official intention of adding methanol gasoline to the revised Catalogue. This Catalogue has been viewed as the cornerstone and benchmark scope of China’s hazardous chemicals (HazChem) management as it provides the most authoritative instruction to industry for whether a chemical falls under the state control of HazChems.
The revision works led by the SAWS and a dozen other Chinese departments started in 2012 and has undergone numerous twists and turns along the way. The latest legislative momentum from the drafting committee seems to favor a leaner catalogue with fewer entries in sharp contrast to the precious industry expectations of a new Chinese style C&L Inventory. The first batch of the revised version will contain more than 3000 substances with 500 plus uncovered by its predecessor.
The agency also urges provincial work safety departments to strengthen their oversight on companies engaged in the production, storage, use and operation of methanol gasoline, as once the revised Catalogue comes into effect, all these companies would be required to comply with the battery of regulatory obligation mandate by Decree 591, China’s supreme regulation on HazChems management.
Specific regulatory obligations for HazChem companies under the Decree 591 include the compulsory nationwide Hazardous Chemicals Registration (SAWS Order 53), the physical hazard identification and classification (PHI&C), the corresponding license or permit application for HazChem production/use/operation, the identification of major hazard installations for HazChem construction projects and facilities, environmental impact assessment or evaluation, Hazchem emergency plan development, transport requirements, etc.
In particular, the SAWS has drawn attention to the fact that the manufacturer and importer of alcohol-based mixed fuels should carry out the PHI&C on products containing methanol as the main raw material, (following the entry into force of the SAWS Order 60, the latest legislation on PHI&C management, on 1 September this year). The physical hazard identification will require application to qualified hazard assessment institutes in addition to requiring enterprise to compile physical hazard classification (PHC) report before submission of the PHC report to the NRCC-SAWS for review and conclusion. Most importantly, chemical companies will be obliged to prepare for the corresponding SDSs, China GHS labels as well as the national HazChems registration if their products are identified as hazardous.
