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Taiwan OSHA Passed Third Reading in Legislative Yuan

The amendments of Labor Safety and Health Act, renamed as “Occupational Safety and Health Act” (OSHA) passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan on 18 June, 2013. However, there is still one provision regarding imposing criminal liability on employers if they illegally overwork employees pending.

The new OSHA, which consists of 55 Articles, is overhauled. It expands the coverage over all occupations, including the employed, self-employed workers, and those subject to the direction or supervision of a workplace principal, etc., and improves the occupational disease prevention system, which mainly helps to secure the work safety in Taiwan domestically.  It is the Article 13 (New chemical notification requirements) and Article 14 (Priority management of substances) amendments that will have a wider impact on the chemical industry, covering both domestic and foreign companies, considered Mr. Mark Grenda, Director of Regulatory Affairs of Afton Chemical Corporation.

Taiwan is aimed to advance its own chemical management system through hazard evaluation and risk assessment of new chemical substances by requiring manufacturers or importers to submit new chemical substance notification prior to actual manufacture or import. Specific implementation details concerning the notification, evaluation, risk assessment, dossier review procedures, etc. will be released in follow-up supplementary regulations. As Mr. Grenda mentioned, Taiwan began working on new chemical notification strategy since 2009. The preliminary scheme is accessible on the CSNN website, however, it is only a rough outline for public reference, with many specific details unpublished and subject to change. The draft existing chemical substances inventory (ECSI) has been updated on 22 Dec 2012 (CL news), which serves to define what will be considered to be existing chemical substances versus those that will be new. Since the new chemical legislation is incorporated into both the new OSHA and pending TCSCA amendments, the formal enforcement of this provision of the new OSHA law also requires passage of the TCSCA, according to Mr. Grenda. However, as we know, the 6 articles haven’t been passed in the first reading of TCSCA, which do include the articles about new chemical notification requirements (CL news). Since the second reading of TCSCA is postponed to the Legislative Session in latter half year, as early as September, it’s really hard to predict when the new chemical management can be established.

As for the controlled chemicals of CMR, SVHC, etc., the permit & license management system will be imposed. The chemicals of priority management, which are explosive, or inflammable, or with acute toxicity, etc. are required to submit operation data for inspection and record. The controlled chemicals and chemicals of priority management will be designated by the central authority. The implementation provisions about permit requirements, permit validity, data submission, etc. will be determined in subordinate statutes.

Other amended articles about chemical management involve the requirements of information communication in supply chain and MSDS for hazardous chemicals (Article 10) and the hierarchical management on hazardous chemicals based on risk degree assessed according to health hazard, distribution and handling amount (Article 11).

Tags : Taiwan, China
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