China drafts technical guideline for screening of priority chemical substances

On May 7, 2021, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China released the “Guidelines for screening of priority assessment chemical substances ” (Draft for comments) and began soliciting comments from relevant organizations.

The guidelines will be used as a basis for ecological and environmental departments to determine the priority assessment chemical substances and develop the “List of priority regulated chemicals”.

About the “List of priority regulated chemicals”

The list is published in stages by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (it has been published twice so far, with a total of 40 chemical substances listed on it). The chemical substances on the list are added to the relevant environmental management list and are subject to various environmental risk control measures. For example, if a substance is added to the list of “toxic hazardous air pollutants”, the company emitting the substance must comply with the relevant requirements under the Air Pollution Control Law. In addition, companies that use or emit the listed substances will be subject to mandatory clean production reviews. What’s more, listed substances will be incorporated into relevant national standards, and their use will be restricted, or companies will be instructed to switch to alternative products.

Principles for screening of priority assessment chemical substances

Emphasize focus based on risks

• Consider the potential environmental and health risks of chemicals in terms of hazards and exposures.
• Focus on substances for which environmental hazards already exist, such as chemical substances and their breakdown products that enter or may enter the environment in the course of production or use.

Screening conditions

Priority assessment chemical substances will be determined based on the following conditions.

• • Both the hazard and exposure conditions specified in the Guidelines are met.
  • There is already evidence of the existence of potential environmental risks.
  • Chemical substances that are already causing environmental pollution.

Examples of Hazardous Conditions

• • PBT substances, vPvB substances, carcinogenic class 1A or 1B substances, etc.

Example of exposure conditions

• • Detected in the body of an organism and there is evidence that it is due to environmental exposure. High annual production or use, etc.

For the original text of the text, please refer to the following URL (in simplified Chinese).
https://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk06/202105/t20210507_831958.html