Registration of Hazardous ChemicalsDetail
China SAWS Order 53 on Registration of Hazardous Chemicals has been effective from August 1st of 2012. While the actual registration work has not been started. The main reason is because the new 'Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals of China' is not published yet. In the same time, many companies have questions about the implementation details of the Order.
The questions for companies are simple: Should I get my products registered according to the SAWS Order 53? When and how?
According to the official Regulations, hazardous chemical products listed in/and not listed in the 'Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals' should get registered with National Registration Center of China (NRCC). The delay on the final release of the Catalogue could be justified by the complexity extent of the work and the number of competent authorities involved. Recently Mr. CHEN of NRCC-SAWS (State Administration of Work Safety) said that the Catalogue will be issued in several batches in the next few years, with the first batch released next spring earliest, and an “initial proposal” has been drafted and agreed upon in the NRCC, being reviewed by several other relevant authorities, including SAWS, MIIT, AQSIQ, etc..
Meanwhile, for those chemicals with unknown hazard properties/not listed in the catalogue, companies should ask approved testing institutions to perform the hazard classification, according to Government statements. While SAWS-certified labs could only be responsible for the physi-chemical hazard identification, the Ministry of Health is responsible for human health hazard identification. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) is responsible for environmental hazard identification. The coordination for such work is already complicated.
Specifically, for chemicals of unknown hazardous properties, the need-to-be-clarified details consist of:
- Definition of chemicals with “unknown hazards” (what should be classified as chemicals of unknown hazardous properties);
- Identification procedure and Requirements;
- List of the labs certified by relevant authorities?; and
- should the authority conduct the classification, or it is ok for the companies to conduct the classification, or the classification should be verified by certified labs? (NRCC once said that certified labs will be responsible for the classification confirmation of the chemicals classified by the companies themselves)
China government's Regulations caused these questions to be answered, and imply many detailed works to be done by the responsible Chinese authorities. For these questions, Mr. Chen of NRCC said a “guidance-like” document will be prepared to help the affected companies with the registration for such problems. Hope the Guidance which expected to be published sometime next year could answer these questions.
The associated documents for the registration ----- NRCC issued on July 10th for comments ----- are still not finalized yet at government,
Another change that might affect the classification of the substance during registration is that Chinese authority is updating China GHS national standards for classification and labeling criteria, to bring them in accordance with the UN GHS 4th edition. Besides the 26 national standards, 2 more will be added, the aspiration hazard (still in draft stage) and the hazard to the ozone layer. The 26 national standards are expected to be published next summer, and the 2 new standards in 2014. The current idea which is good, as learnt by Randis from authorities, is that the update of these standards would not request the companies to update their MSDS immediately.
The good news which might relieve the nerve of some of the potential registrants is that before the registration guidance is released, the chemical substances with “unknown hazard property”/not listed in the catalogue are “exempted” from the registration responsibility. While the situation will be changed once the guidance document is issued, clarifying the concrete steps to conduct the hazard classification.
So, come back to the question raised at beginning of the text: Should I get my products registered according to the SAWS Order 53? When and how?
The answer would be: because these questions above are not clarified even inside governments, and the associated documents are not finalized yet, the registration work is not expected to start before first half of 2013, from Randis' viewpoint. The chemical industry is suggested to wait till the associated documents and the new Catalogue are officially issued by China government --- hopefully first half of 2013.
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