The amended Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (Taiwan TCSCA) was submitted to Taiwan Legislative Yuan for final approval on 9 Nov, followed by Executive Yuan’s adoption on 1 November 2012. It was reviewed on 21 Mar and 29 May 2013 respectively during Legislative Yuan’s Regular Session in the first half year scheduled from Feb to May. So far, further assessment is still needed for 6 articles.
On 21 March 2013, the stricter registration requirements on Class 4 toxic chemical substances have been passed, while the debates remain focused on new chemical substances management, adoption of nanomaterial definition, registration scheme for the designated substances of priority concern, etc. However, the scheduled follow-up review on April 17 and 18 was cancelled, which was postponed to 29 May 2013, almost approaching the end of the Regular Session in the first half of 2013. Unfortunately, no substantial progress was made in the recent review, which means the review work of TCSCA will be reopened until the latter half year, as early as September.
As planned, to support the implementation of TCSCA, EPA will require pre-registration of existing chemical substances prior to manufacture and import with the assistance of the on-line submission tool. The basic information, such as company information, chemical name in Chinese and English, CAS No., volume, etc. will be submitted. However, EPA is now evaluating the necessity for pre-registration, since such information has been more or less obtained in the process of Existing Chemical Substance Nomination (ECN) and Supplementary Existing Chemical Substance Nomination (SECN). However, the ECN and SECN only encourage eligible nominators on a voluntary basis to nominate their chemical substances in order to be included into Taiwan Existing Chemical Substances Inventory (ECSI), which means not all companies involved in the chemical industry were covered. Although the pre-registration will be burdensome on companies, it’s a good way to establish a comprehensive tracking system for handling of chemicals in Taiwan.
