Chinese industry association releases association standards for hazardous chemical labeling 
On Dec. 25, 2023, the China Chemical Safety Association published two association standards called the Technical Specification for Coding and Labeling of Hazardous Chemicals (T/CCSAS 047-2023) and the Technical Specification for Selection of Electronic Labels for Hazardous Chemicals (T/CCSAS 048-2023), respectively, both of which came into effect immediately.
China has been developing a hazardous chemical management system based on two-dimensional barcodes for the safety information of chemicals. The latest standards set out technical requirements for the creation of these barcodes and requirements for electronic tags of hazardous chemicals. The final versions of the standards remain almost the same as the draft versions published in July 2023.
Technical Specification for Coding and Labeling of Hazardous Chemicals
Scope of the standard
This standard sets out what chemicals the barcode is required for, barcode creation principles, barcode composition, barcode reading methods, information label specifications, and requirements for the use of the barcode and label.
The standard covers hazardous chemical barcode creation, and hazardous chemical labeling in the production, storage, transportation, business operations, use and other operations of hazardous chemicals.
What chemicals the barcode is required for
The barcode is required for hazardous chemicals. The barcode can optionally be created for packaging and transportation equipment for hazardous chemicals subject to the barcode requirement. Appendix B of the standard provides the following sample of the barcode.
A hazardous chemical safety information barcode
Barcode composition
A hazardous chemical safety information barcode consists of a “required information code” and an “extension code”. A required information code in turn consists of a registration URL and a hazardous chemical registration number. An extension code can include a prefix, a packaging code, a date code, a sequence code, etc. Companies can define extension codes for themselves.
Label forms
A label is either a two-dimensional barcode or an RFID tag.
Code integration
Companies can integrate the safety information barcode of a hazardous chemical with its production information barcode or other information into one barcode. When an integrated barcode is scanned by different systems, different corresponding information will be displayed.
Technical Specification for Selection of Electronic Labels for Hazardous Chemicals
Scope of the standard
This standard sets out requirements for the selection, standardized use and test methods of hazardous chemical electronic tags.
The standard applies to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags used in the production, storage, transportation, business operations, use, disposal and other operations of hazardous chemicals.
Requirement for electronic tags
Hazardous chemical electronic tags should operate in the passive mode, which means that they don’t have batteries in them and are powered by electromagnetic waves from external devices such as RFID reader writers.
Requirements for the RFID logo
A hazardous chemical electronic tag must have the RFID logo (shown below) on it in an appropriate position. The logo should be laser-engraved on the surface if the surface is made of a hard material; it should be printed under a transparent layer of epoxy resin if the surface is made of a soft material.
The RFID logo
Requirements for electronic tag attachment
The electronic tag should be attached in a location that does not often touch other objects and is suitable for reading the tag, taking into account the packaging forms and other factors. The electronic tag should be firmly fixed to the packaging, products, crates, etc.
The association standards (in Chinese) are available via the following links:
