On January 5, 2022, the Work Safety Committee of the State Council issued the National Plan for Centralized Management of Safety Risks of Hazardous Chemicals, aiming to promote the use of the new registration system for hazardous chemicals as well as the application of the “One Enterprise, One Product, One Code” Rules. Since Guangdong Province took the lead in conducting “One Enterprise, One Product, One Code” Rules, other provinces and cities in China successively followed up soon after. CIRS has summarized the latest information on the implementation of “One Enterprise, One Product, One Code” rules in different provinces and cities as of September for your reference.

Zhaoqing Customs, affiliated with Guangzhou Customs, has seized a batch of dangerous goods including adhesives and glues, weighing 30.5 kg in total.

According to the Regulation on the Administration of Precursor Chemicals (Order 445 of the State Council) and the Measures for the Licensing for Production and Operation of Non-pharmaceutical Precursor Chemicals (Order 5 of the State Administration of Work Safety), the Shanghai Emergency Management Bureau hereby makes the following notifications for the consideration of completing the annual report on the manufacture and operation of non-pharmaceutical precursor chemicals (hereinafter referred to as the “annual report”).

The Department of Emergency Management of Shandong Province is to implement the “One Enterprise, One Product, One Code” management rules. After its implementation, every hazardous chemical manufactured and imported by enterprises in Shandong Province must include a safety information code (a unique QR code), to provide support the supervision of hazardous chemicals and the efficient transmission of information on hazardous chemicals.

As one of the largest ports for the import and export of hazardous chemicals, Shanghai Customs attaches great importance to the safety of hazardous chemicals. Since the beginning of 2022, Shanghai Customs has supervised the import of over 43,000 batches of dangerous goods, including 107 cases that involved tax evasion and false declarations. The volume of illegal hazardous chemicals reached 3,025 tons.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received an application for authorization of two substances from Roche Diagnostics Switzerland. From 9 August 2022, HSE has asked for public comments on the scientific and technological information on alternatives or processes of these two substances. The deadline for comments is 4 October 4, 2022.

On 1 August 2022, South Korea published the revised K-REACH implementation rules. The revised rules ease the exemption requirements for new chemical substances with an annual import volume of less than 0.1t/y for R&D purposes by exempting the specific name and CAS number of the chemical substances.

On July 28, 2022, the Shanghai government published a notice regarding the road transportation and storage of dangerous goods in the municipality. The notice came into force on August 15, 2022. This notice was published to ensure safe and orderly operation within the city, and ensure the safety of people’s lives and properties. It was drafted based on: the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals, the Measures for the Administration of Road Transportation Safety of Dangerous Goods, the Provisions on the Administration of Road Transport of Dangerous Goods, the Measures for the Dynamic Supervision and Administration of Road Transport Vehicles, and the Measures of Shanghai Municipality for the Safety Administration of Hazardous Chemicals.

Precursor chemicals refer to chemicals that can be used as raw materials or auxiliary materials of drugs, such as hydrochloric acids, sulphuric acids, some organic matters, organic solvents, and few strong oxidants. Precursor chemicals can be subdivided into 3 categories, among which Categories 2 and 3 are commonly used in laboratories. Explosive chemicals refer to chemicals that can be used as raw materials or auxiliary materials of explosives, including strong oxidants, combustible or flammable substances, strong reducing agents and some organic matters.

On 14 June 2022, the World Trade Organization released the draft decree of the list of materials exempted from Halal certification notified by Indonesia. This decree has entered into force from December 27, 2021. A series of raw materials and chemical substances lists were released. The raw materials and substances in the lists are identified as halal materials and can be exempted from Halal certification due to their properties. Known as the Halal Positive Lists, it not only includes many natural sources of ingredients such as essential oil, menthol and neroli oil but also over 4000 synthetic chemicals, including titanium dioxide and pigments. Raw materials and chemicals included in the Halal Positive List can be directly exported to Indonesia without fulfilling the obligation of Halal certification, which significantly eases the trade burden of enterprises.