Request a Demo
On 12 Jan 2017, South Korea’s Ministry of Environment notified the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade under World Trade Organization (WTO) of a draft proposal on a new biocides regulation, named as “Act on Safety Management of Consumer Chemical Products and Biocides”. According to the WTO notification (G/TBT/N/KOR/702), the draft proposal is subject to a period of public consultation lasting 30 days. The draft is proposed to be adopted on 1 Jan 2018 and take effect one year later on 1 Jan 2019.
Before notifying the WTO, The proposal had been issued in South Korea by MoE Public Notice No. 2016-870 on 28 Dec 2016 for public comments. Major contents are summarized as below:
Safety management of household chemical products;
The risk concerned products currently managed under K-REACH will be covered by this new Act. The name of “risk concerned product” will be changed to “household chemical product subject to suitability confirmation”. Manufacturer or importer of household chemical products subject to suitability confirmation should request specialized institutes entrusted by MoE to perform assessment on such products every 3 years, including safety and labeling criteria, threshold for substance content, migration or evaporation, etc. In addition, a new commission specialized on household chemical products will be established affiliated to MoE.
Approval of biocidal substances (active substances);
Companies should apply to the MoE for approval of an active substance to be contained in the biocidal product. However, for the active substances already circulated in the market before 31 Dec 2018 (namely before implementation), a ten year grace period will be granted after notifying such situation to the authority. Dossier should be submitted within the grace period to get the approval.
Authorization of biocidal products;
As mentioned above, only approved biocides can be used for biocidal products. Biocidal products, such as disinfectants and insecticides, must obtain authorization before they are placed on the market.
Safety management of treated articles;
Articles can only be treated with biocidal products containing active substances approved by the authority. The treated articles should be labelled accordingly.
Data protection and sharing;
Distribution management of consumer chemical products and biocides, etc.
The humidifier incident causing lung disease and deaths in South Korea is a driver behind the drafting of the new regulation. South Korea will accelerate the progress of legislation and establish sound safety management in the use of consumer chemical products and biocides.
