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Thailand's Department of Industrial Works (DIW) has recently issued a notice [1] to release the First Thailand Existing Chemicals Inventory. At the same time, an online platform [2] for searching the inventory was open. The issuance of the existing chemical inventory is a milestone of Thailand’s management for chemicals and heralds the different management requirements for existing chemicals substances and new chemical substances.
According to the online search platform, the inventory currently includes 11,474 entries. Users could search the target chemical substances by Chemical name, molecular formulas, hazardous substance type, chemical type, CAS number, and chemical code. The search results, as well as the entire inventory, could be exported and downloaded as a PDF or Excel document. The substance information in the inventory also includes the import quantity, production volume, and the physical/health/environmental hazards of the substance.
Three hazardous substance types are used to describe some chemicals in the inventory, meaning the classification might be conducted according to a new rule. And according to the draft Chemical Substance Act released in last year, substances shall be classified into 3 Lists based on the risk by the Chemical Assessment Committee, and here are the descriptions of the substances in these three Lists:
List 1: Low risk. Enterprises shall comply with the coming standards regarding import/export, production, transportation, storage and disposal/recycling of substances in List 1.
List 2: High risk. Enterprises must obtain licensing from the competent authority before handling chemicals in this list.
List 3: All activities are prohibited, while substances used for R&D purposes or chemicals where contamination at use is unavoidable with controlled risk may be exempt.
Besides the hazardous substance type, the inventory also introduces chemical groups and chemical codes of the substances. Chemical groups include Group LCC （low concern chemicals）, Group GC (general chemicals), Group CoC (chemicals of concern), and Group CHC (chemicals of high concern). And the chemical code consists of three strings. More details of the chemical groups and the chemical codes may be explained in an upcoming Act or Guidance.
The existing chemical inventory provides the basis for future differentiated management of existing chemical substances and new chemical substances. It is highly possible that the Thailand administrations will release more information on the Chemical Substance Act or other related regulations in the second half of the year.
