{"id":2829,"date":"2013-10-01T09:13:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T14:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2014-03-25T10:35:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T15:35:39","slug":"public-pressure-gets-the-job-done-south-korea-passes-new-chemicals-law-k-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2013\/10\/01\/public-pressure-gets-the-job-done-south-korea-passes-new-chemicals-law-k-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"Public pressure gets the job done: South Korea passes new chemicals law, K-REACH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alissa Sasso<\/em> is a Chemicals Policy Fellow.<\/em><\/p>\n

Two years ago, accidental use of a chemical in humidifiers in South Korea tragically took the lives of 18 people and captured national headlines. Nearly a year later another <\/span>fatal accident<\/span><\/a> occurred at a chemical plant, this time injuring thousands of people in the surrounding area as well. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the South Korean National Assembly was negotiating a new <\/span>comprehensive chemicals bill<\/span><\/a> that some observers saw as leaning in favor of the business interests at the table. The tragedies brought the public spotlight to the issue and changed the political dynamic and policy outcome.\u00a0 With the public calling for greater control over toxic chemicals, <\/span>legislators <\/span><\/a>reinstated many of the health-protective requirements that had been dropped due to industry pressure (Chemical Watch<\/em>, subscription required). And on April 30<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup>, 2013, the Assembly passed the \u201cAct on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals\u201d, known as \u201cKorea REACH\u201d or simply \u201cK-REACH\u201d (Chemical Watch<\/em><\/span>, subscription required).\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

K-REACH seeks to protect human health and the environment by requiring registration, hazard and risk evaluation and control measures for both new and existing chemicals.\u00a0 The law is very similar to the structure of the European Union\u2019s <\/span>Regulation<\/span><\/a> on the R<\/span>egistration, E<\/span>valuation, A<\/span>uthorisation and Restriction of Ch<\/span>emicals (REACH), hence the nickname K-REACH. Compliance obligations will apply to both domestic manufacturers and importers of chemical substances and will come into effect on January 1<\/span>st<\/span><\/sup>, 2015. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Act\u2019s similarity to the EU\u2019s REACH Regulation means that companies that have already dealt with compliance in the EU will be familiar with many details of K-REACH. There are some important differences, however, described below based on information provided in English by a Chemical Watch <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span>webinar<\/span><\/a> featuring Jun Ho Lee, a senior researcher at the <\/span>Korea Testing and Research Institute<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> and a <\/span><\/span>summary<\/span><\/a>\u00a0provided by Bergeson & Campbell PC<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Nitty-Gritty<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The similarities between K-REACH and REACH are pointed to by Korean authorities as reducing the burden of the new law on industry. Additionally, the Korean law has taken into account critiques of the EU law as its implementation has progressed. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2012, the Korean government ran three <\/span>pilot projects<\/span><\/a> to anticipate issues associated with enforcement and to develop guidance documents for registrants, focused in particular on supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) (Chemical Watch<\/em> webinar). These guidance documents are forthcoming (expected by the end of this year or early 2014), as are many details of compliance obligations that will be finalized in enforcement decrees and rules. Though final details are still to come, the table below provides a useful framework for comparing K-REACH and REACH.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Provisions<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nEU REACH<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nKorea REACH<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Annual notification<\/span><\/td>\nNo routine requirement; significant changes require updates to registrations<\/span><\/td>\nMust submit annual data on volume of production\/ import and use of:
\n<\/span>– ALL <\/em>new chemicals
\n<\/span>– existing chemicals manufactured or imported over 1 ton\/year <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Registration<\/span><\/td>\nPre-registration<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nNo pre-registration (dropped from previous <\/span>version<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joint registration of chemical substances (<\/span>SIEFs<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nJoint registration of chemical substances<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data requirements (see <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nSimilar data requirements (details forthcoming)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chemicals subject to registration<\/span><\/a>:
\n<\/span>– All new and existing chemicals\u00a0 manufactured\/ imported over 1 ton\/year (tonnage based deadlines)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n		Chemicals subject to registration:
\n<\/span>– All new chemicals
\n<\/span>– Only \u201cpriority\u201d existing chemicals (list forthcoming; \u22482,000)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No data, no market<\/span><\/td>\nNo data, no market<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Evaluation<\/span><\/td>\nECHA evaluates compliance in registration dossiers and testing proposals<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nThe Minister of Environment (MOE) conducts a hazard evaluation for all registered substances, to be posted online<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Community rolling action plan (CoRAP) substances evaluated by Member States for chemicals with suspected risks<\/span><\/td>\nCompanies complete risk assessments for all registered substances \u226510 tons\/year or if hazard assessment indicates need for RA<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nThe MOE identifies hazardous substances and risk minimization measures<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How to comply (for international companies)<\/span><\/td>\nOnly Representatives<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nOnly Representatives<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mechanisms for addressing chemicals of concern<\/span><\/td>\nCandidate List<\/span><\/a> of Substances of Very High Concern for Authorisation (SVHCs)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nBans<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Authorisation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nPermissible substances (authorisation)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Restriction<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nRestrictions<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chemicals in products<\/span><\/td>\nNotification<\/span><\/a> of articles containing SVHCs to authorities<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nMOE conducts product risk assessment to identify High Risk Concerned Products, which will be subject to safety and labeling requirements<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Suppliers of articles<\/span><\/a> containing SVHCs in concentrations \u22650.1% of must provide safety information to recipients<\/span><\/td>\nNotification of products containing hazardous chemicals in concentrations \u22650.1% of total weight to authorities and downstream users<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In addition to REACH\u2019s and K-REACH\u2019s similarities aiding compliance for companies that already have experience with the EU legislation, data generated under REACH is allowed to be used to comply with K-REACH. The extent to which this is possible in practice will largely depend on a company\u2019s ownership of the REACH data and agreements binding members in <\/span>Substance Information Exchange Fora<\/span><\/a> (SIEFs). <\/span>David Nelissen of Accenture<\/span><\/a>, a management consulting company with offices in South Korea, argues that the greatest lesson to be learned from REACH will be in meeting the \u201cdemanding requirements for ongoing communication along whole value and supply chains\u201d (Chemical Watch<\/em>, subscription required).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bigger Picture<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

An oft-repeated message on this blog is that the EU\u2019s REACH is serving as a global template for chemical policy reform, with other countries seeking to build on and improve what the EU has put in motion Even more basically, chemical policy IS being reformed almost everywhere, it seems, except in the US. \u00a0The drivers are various:\u00a0 in South Korea, it took a series of tragic accidents to ramp up the pressure and support passage of more health-protective chemicals management. Let\u2019s hope we don\u2019t have to wait for the same impetus at home; <\/span>it\u2019s past time for our Congress to act too<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alissa Sasso is a Chemicals Policy Fellow. Two years ago, accidental use of a chemical in humidifiers in South Korea tragically took the lives of 18 people and captured national headlines. Nearly a year later another fatal accident occurred at a chemical plant, this time injuring thousands of people in the surrounding area as well. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8643,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,109],"tags":[446,39202,5015],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-international","tag-reach","tag-s-korea","tag-substances-of-very-high-concern-svhc"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}