Pursuant to the Regulations of New and Existing Chemical Substances Registration, the Ministry of Environment (MOENV; then the Environmental Protection Administration, EPA) officially launched Taiwan’s chemical substance registration system on 11 December 2014. The registration system has now been in force for over a year. Working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labor (MOL), the MOENV has set up a one-stop, inter-ministerial processing window and has completed the validation of more than 7,000 existing chemical substances. In addition, the MOENV has asked the MOL to include these substances in its inventory of existing chemical substances, which comprises more than 100,000 substances.
On 11 December 2013, the Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (now the Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances Control Act) was amended and promulgated, introducing the system of source registration of chemical substances. The Regulations of New and Existing Chemical Substances Registration were subsequently formulated to facilitate enforcement of the Act.
As the number of chemical-related industries is large and their businesses are highly diverse, the technical requirements for review, registration and guidance are complex. Under Taiwan’s governmental structure, both the MOENV and the MOL have the authority and obligation to control the use of toxic chemical substances, so the two agencies’ functions partially overlap. A case in point is the Regulations on New Chemical Substances Registration under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, administered by the MOL. To spare industries the trouble of registering twice, and under the coordination and mediation of the National Development Council, the MOENV set up a one-stop, inter-ministerial processing window for chemical-related industries to register information on the chemicals they use. This has effectively reduced the registration burden on these industries.
The MOENV stressed that, before the end of March 2015, it had processed applications for the manufacture or import of chemical substances filed before 11 December 2014. Over the past year, the MOENV held two technical review meetings jointly with the MOL, inviting scholars, experts and relevant competent authorities to take part in the discussions. So far, the registration information of more than 7,000 chemical substances has been reviewed and validated, and the new additions have been incorporated into the MOL’s inventory of chemical substances originally announced in 2014. In total, more than 530 cases of new chemical substances have been registered.
During 2015 alone, the MOENV established a chemical substance registration center and installed a dedicated website to facilitate industry registration. Either through documentation or through e-mail, it provided individual counseling to more than 4,600 enterprises. It also held 40 sessions of legal consultations and international conferences, with more than 6,000 participants in total, and began drawing up a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the registration of new chemical substances. All in all, the chemical registration system is taking shape in Taiwan through genuine promotion and communication.