China aims to explore in the following five years a model of intensive administration towards the hazardous chemical industry and will set strict market access to certain chemical products
A newly released 12th Five-Year Development Layout Planning on Hazardous Chemicals is going to exercise intensive layout on China’s hazardous chemicals (HC) industry, reports China MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection) news alert today. All new establishment and relocation of HC related companies must be incorporated into a system of special chemical industry park, and strict access standards to these chemical parks will be set up in the near future.
The planning has been released on February 9 by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), a department in charge of the state economy in relation to industrial and hi-tech development. According to the Plan, China aims to explore in the following five years a model of intensive administration towards the hazardous chemical industry.
The MIIT will make plans on the closure, winding up, merger and transfer or removal of HCs manufacturing and storing companies not within the area of special chemical parks; it will also advance dislocation of those that have excessive or over dispersive major hazard installations or of which the safety protection distance does not conform to relevant standard, to separate them far from environmentally sensitive areas.
The Planning points out that China is demanding standard market access to a group of hazardous chemicals and observational chemical products including fluorine chemicals, chromium compounds, cyanide, phosgene, ammonia synthesis and part of phosphorous chemicals. Projects concerning highly toxic and observational chemicals shall be performed under strict monitor and newly created HC companies must be located within a special chemical industry park.
China’s current management of HCs is based on its State Council Decree 591 (2010), a framework institution which regulates the production, sale, storage, transportation, and use of existing hazardous chemicals. Identification of hazardous chemicals shall be consulted to the Catalogue of Hazardous chemicals (Chinese C&L Inventory), first published in 2002 and now under revision. The 2002 Catalogue lists 3823 chemicals classified in 8 categories, of which 335 chemicals is also listed as Highly Toxic Chemicals. MEP news said more than 80% of the bulk materials and products in the chemical industry belong to hazardous chemicals. In addition, a majority of chemicals under observation in the global Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are hazardous in nature.
