South Korea’s NIER issued a notice (2013-31) on 19 Nov 2013, announcing that 34 substances have been newly added to the non-toxic chemical substances list. The list is regularly updated, on average four times a year. So far, there are 5739 substances in the list, comprised of new substances that have undergone toxicity assessment under the Toxic Chemicals Control Act (TCCA) and been designated as non-toxic. The list is accessible on the Korea’s National Chemicals Information System and provides the following basic information of KE No., CAS No., Chemical name (EN).
New substances that have already been notified and published on the Official Gazette three years after the date the notifiers receive the assessment results are considered existing chemical substances. Following from this, as they are classified as existing chemicals there is obviously no need for re-registration under K-REACH when it comes into force on 1 Jan 2015. However, although they are non-toxic, it is still unclear if all non-toxic substances will be excluded from the PECs list and associated mandatory chemical registration under K-REACH. If non-toxic existing substances are manufactured or imported in large volumes there is a possibility they will require registration. Additionally they will also be subject to annual reporting on usage and volume if manufactured, imported or sold in quantities of more than 1tonne/year.
*PECs list comprises priority evaluation chemicals (PECs), which are selected based on the exposure, hazard information and trading volume, etc.
Some non-toxic substances are published with generic names due to CBI concerns. Under TCCA, the data protection period can be extended twice, by five years each time. Theoretically a maximum of 13 years can be granted, counting up the three years before official publication and two extensions. The application for extension should be submitted a minimum of seven days before the data protection period expires and but no earlier than 30 days before the expiry date. However, if the substances are toxic or added into the observational chemical substance list, no data protection applies when published on the Official Gazette.
