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Photo of Mrs Somsri Suwanjaras taken at CRAC 2013 on 21 Oct 2013 Shanghai.
In the REACH24H Chemical Regulatory Annual Conference held on 21 Oct, Mrs Somsri Suwanjaras, the director of the Hazardous Substance Control Bureau of Department of Industrial Works (DIW) clarified that Thailand’s DIW strictly requires full disclosure on the chemical composition of hazardous items imported into the territory.
In response to industry concerns on whether this requirement would pose a potential threat to confidential business information (CBI), Mrs Suwanjaras outlined that such information will only be used by the DIW internally for hazard evaluation and categorization. Regarding the difficulty in finding appropriate CAS numbers for chemical components, Mrs Suwanjaras advised importers to provide a complete chemical profile with as much supporting information as possible. It is the DIW officials’ duty to determine the classification of an item based on the submitted information. In this sense, CAS number (if available) will be greatly helpful but not compulsory.
As outlined by Mrs Suwanjara items are classified as hazardous if the concentration of hazardous components is greater than 1% for items in liquid or solid form. This cut off is not a generally applicable Thai standard and a range of values are adopted by other governmental agencies for hazardous chemicals controlled in other sectors.
It has been more than 20 years since Thailand implemented chemical management by enforcing the Hazardous Substance Act (HSA) on 7 Apr 1992. The HSA is currently under revision and the consultation period just ended on 16 Aug (ChemLinked news release 22 Jul 2013). Approximately 1,535 chemical items are under hazardous chemical control divided into 6 control lists (i.e. CL 1-6) governed by 6 different competent regulatory bodies, the DIW, the Department of Agriculture (DOA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Livestock Development (DOLD), Department of Fisheries (DOF) and Department of Energy Business (DOEB). There are currently 5 sub-lists under the CL5 governed by the DIW and GHS has become mandatory since March this year for pure chemicals in CL 5 and will apply to mixtures five years later (ChemLinked news release 1 Mar 2013) .
