CIRS is to host a free webinar on Ukraine REACH and Brazil REACH on December 18, 2024.

This article compiles the chemical regulation updates for November in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

On December 3, 2024, the Ministry of Commerce of China announced that it will strengthen the control on dual-use items exported to the United States in order to safeguard the national security and interests, and to fulfill international non-proliferation obligations. The announcement takes effect immediately from the date of publication.

On November 25, 2024, China's Ministry of Ecological Environment (MEE) announced the addition of a batch of 30 registered substances that fulfill the requirements of existing substances into the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China (IECSC).

On November 25, 2024, China's Ministry of Ecological Environment (MEE) announced the addition of a batch of 6 substances that fulfill the requirements of existing substances into the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China (IECSC).

The Global Chemical Inventory Search (GCIS) developed by CIRS Group supports users in searching the latest updates to global chemical inventories by entering a CAS number or substance name in Chinese or English. It also provides obligation analysis for global chemical compliance. CIRS continuously monitors changes to global chemical inventories and regularly updates ChemRadar, to try and help users understand more about the compliance obligations of their substances.

The UA CLP will come into effect six months after its publication, on November 15 2024. Products that have been placed on the market before November 15, 2024, even if they do not comply with current technical regulations, can continue to maintain their status until November 14, 2025, which is a one-year transition period.

The European Commission has announced its intention to withdraw approval for the use of ethylene oxide as a surface disinfectant in biocidal products, citing that the chemical's applications do not align with the scope of the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR). This decision is set to impact the regulatory status of ethylene oxide under the EU's stringent health and environmental standards.

China’s chemical inventory of existing chemical substances is IECSC, which stands for the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances Produced or Imported in China (IECSC). There are two parts of IECSC, public part and classified/confidential part. Companies can check out the public part by themselves and shall only enquire Authorities for classified/confidential part. If substances are not listed in the public part, companies have to submit a formal enquiry to SCC to check whether a substance is listed in the confidential part. The enquiry costs 3000 RMB.

On November 11, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) of Japan jointly announced the implementation of new notification procedures for low volume and small volume new chemical substances starting in 2025.