On April 6th, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the launch of ASEAN-Japan Chemical Safety Database (AJCSD), a platform for sharing information on chemical regulatory schemes and chemical risks and hazards.
AJCSD will be a helpful tool for companies establishing chemical trade with Japan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The chemical regulatory information of Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam is not included at the moment. The inquiry results consist of the following parts:
Chemical identifiers – AJCSD ID number, CAS number, chemical name, synonym, and molecular formula structure
Regulatory information – Relevant chemical regulations and lists
Hazard information – Official GHS classification results (only Japan’s information is available now) and other hazard information (by referring J-CHECK database)
Hazard assessment reports and sample SDSs to be supplemented
The idea of building such database was first conceived during a research project from 2010 to 2012 by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). According to their conclusions, an integrated information infrastructure in ASEAN and East Asia will significantly contribute to the regional economy and sound chemical management. AJCSD took shape in mid-2012 under the initiative of Japan, and continuous efforts were made under the joint efforts of governments and industries throughout the participating countries. The 2015 pilot version is expected to be fully functional in April 2016.
The benefits for the governments, industry and the whole region may be reflected in the following aspects:
Government | Industry | Whole region |
|
|
|
