Although some amendments to the Industrial Safety and Health Regulations have already been enforced this month, the management method of chemical substances at workplaces will be drastically changed from April next year (2024).
Until now, the obligation to comply with the regulations has been limited to chemical substances stipulated in the Ordinance on Prevention of Hazards due to Specified Chemical Substances, the Ordinance on Prevention of Organic Solvent Poisoning, the Ordinance on Prevention of Lead Poisoning, and the Ordinance on Prevention of Tetraalkyl Lead Poisoning. In the near future, however, it will shift from compliance with laws and regulations to voluntary compliance and voluntary management based on the GHS (The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals) classification.
In recent years, there have been serious accidents such as bile duct cancer caused by proof printing using dichloromethane or 1,2-dichloropropane, and bladder cancer caused by manufacturing dyes and pigment intermediates using ortho-toluidine.
We will not go into the details of this revision of the law because there is a lot of information, but we will provide the relevant links below.
For companies that handle chemicals or chemical substances of any kind, it is mandatory to appoint a chemical substance manager. Please check the linked information for legal compliance and employee safety.