South Korea to centralize major chemicals-related regulatory operations to National Institute of Chemicals Safety

On April 29, 2024, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of South Korea announced that the governing power over the registration and evaluation of chemicals and the approval of consumer chemical products and biocidal products, which were previously controlled by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), to the National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICR). With this transfer, NICR will govern operations of chemicals in a centralized manner going forward.

The MOE explained that this transfer not only integrates all chemicals-related notification and examination operations into a single regulatory body (NICR), but also centralizes chemical data management under the Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals (hereinafter "K-REACH"), Chemicals Control Act (Korean version of GHS), and the Consumer Chemical Products and Biocides Safety Act (hereinafter "K-BPR") under NICR. This will, according to MOE, promotes efficient use of information on hazardous chemicals via the designation of hazardous chemicals and the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) system, by linking information on hazardous chemical properties that are collected upon registration of chemicals to plant information (i.e. information on which chemicals are handled in which plants).

The main content of the announcement is as follows.