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The new Toxic and Chemical Substances of Concern Control Act, previously known as the Toxic Chemical Substance Control Act (TCSCA) was promulgated on Jan 16th, 2019. More than 30 subordinate regulations will be revised or fleshed out accordingly.
The new Act will take effect one year after the official promulgation, while Article 7, Article 54, Article 65, Article 67 and Article 72 will be effective immediately.
The full contents of the new Act are accessible here (in traditional Chinese and English).
TCSCA is the most important chemical control law in Taiwan. It has undergone six amendments since its first promulgation in 1986. The last amendment was made in 2013 and implemented the core principle of chemical registration. However, after promulgation a number of high profile chemical accidents occurred, prompting the government to revise the Act again with a view to better management of chemicals throughout the supply chain.
Although listed as a priority, it has taken more than a year to be approved after the Executive Yuan submitted the proposal in Nov 2017 (CL news) to the Legislative Yuan.
The revised Act entails a broader control over chemicals in Taiwan, 7 key improvements are highlighted as below:
(1) Regulating a new category called “substances of concern” (in addition to the current Class 1 to Class 4 toxic chemical substances) to cover substances which are not toxic but do pose environmental and health risks
(2) Adding a new chapter on accident prevention and emergency response
(3) Forming a national chemical management board to strengthen cross-ministerial cooperation
(4) Establishing a Toxic and Chemical Management Fund to impose fees on the operation of chemical substances, prioritizing highly hazardous chemicals and chemicals produced/used/traded in large amounts, and to finance consultation regarding adverse incidents and lower disaster response costs
(5) Reducing incident reporting time from one hour to thirty minutes, broadening reporting scope from confirmed pollution to possible pollution to the environment outside the factory, strengthening enterprise responsibility and reducing emergency response time of local government, etc.
(6) Prohibiting sales or transfer of toxic substances and substances of concern via online platform or mail or other means without recognizable identity. A fine (NT$60,000 to NT$300,000) will be imposed every time the platform operator is found involved in these illegal activities
(7) Adding provisions about the pursuit of illicit gains in addition to fines, and whistleblower rewarding mechanism.
