Recently, Japanese authorities have added substances on the following controlled substance lists:
Chemical Substance Control Law (CSCL): priority assessment chemical substances
Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA): mutagenic substances
It is important to provide a revised SDS by reflecting the above changes. Suppliers of the candidate substance have to provide the hazardous material information to the customer.
Addition of Priority Assessment Chemical Substances (PACSs) on the List (CSCL)
The authorities added 43 substances on the list of priority assessment chemical substances on 21 December 2012, which now includes 138 substances in total.
List of priority assessment chemical substances (in Japanese)
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/chemical_management/kasinhou/files/yusen_121221.pdf
(1) Notification
Whenever the annual amount of candidate substance was manufactured or imported not less than 1 ton, the manufacturers and/or importers have to submit annual notifications of the quantities. The notification record of the previous fiscal year shall be submitted to the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the period of April– June.
It is not required to notify when the substance is contained as impurities with the amount less than 1 wt%. However,, when the substance was intentionally added, it is not regarded as impurity and the notification is required, even if the amount was less than 1 wt%.
(2) Provision of information to customers
Supplier of a priority assessment chemical substance shall endeavor to provide information that the product is a priority assessment chemical substance or the product contains a priority assessment chemical substance.
Procedure to provide the information is not specified in the CSCL, it is recommended that the information would be included in the SDS.
Companies exporting a chemical product containing a newly designated priority assessment chemical substance to Japan should inform the importers that the component of the product is designated as a priority assessment chemical substance.
Addition of Mutagenic Substances on the List (Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA))
The authorities added 37 substances on the list of mutagenic substances on 11 December 2012.
Notification by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) (in Japanese)
http://wwwhourei.mhlw.go.jp/hourei/doc/tsuchi/T121218K0010.pdf
The MHLW announced that 36 newly notified chemical substances and one existing chemical substance are recognized to be strong mutagenic substances.
However, two substances were eliminated from the existing list of mutagenic substances as concluded not showing strong mutagenicity by reviewing latest information.
The MHLW has made public the safety guidelines for preventing the impairment of workers' health that may be caused by mutagenic substances. Companies manufacturing or handling mutagenic substances must take measures in accordance with this guideline and must try to take relevant measures for prevent health impairment to workers. (This guideline applies to the case that the amount of mutagenic substance is more than 1wt%.)
Items described in the safety guideline are listed below:
Measures to reduce the risk of exposure
Assessment of working environment
Education for labor hygiene
Provision of hazard and toxicity information (Labeling and SDS)
-- Chemical name of the mutagenic substance
-- Description that the product has strong mutagenicity to microorganisms.Currently, in the guideline, only provision of SDS and labeling is noted, but specific details are now described and became much clear under the revision of this time.
Complete understanding of workers engaged in the manufacturing or handling of mutagenic chemical substances
