South Korea announced hazard review results for 56 existing chemical substances 
On January 30, 2026, the National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICS) issued a public notice on a partial amendment to the Hazard Review Results of Chemical Substances under the Act on Registration and Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals (hereinafter “K-REACH”). Through this notice, the names, classifications, and key hazard information of chemical substances for which hazard assessment has been completed were publicized. In addition, upon the expiration of the data protection period, the chemical names of new chemical substances that had not previously been made public were disclosed.
Legal basis and purpose of the hazard review system
Pursuant to Articles 18 and 21 of K-REACH, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Changes (MCEE) and NICS are required to conduct hazard reviews of chemical substances for which registration has been completed and to disclose the results.
- Hazard review (Article 18)
A system under which the physical hazards, human health hazards, and environmental hazards of a chemical substance are reviewed based on the registration dossier submitted by a business operator. - Disclosure of information (Article 21)
Following the hazard review, information is disclosed regarding the types of hazards posed by each substance and whether it is designated as a toxic substance, including substances hazardous to human health (acute or chronic) and substances hazardous to the environment.
Key contents of the issued notice
1. Publication of substances for which reviews have been completed
Hazard review results were published for 56 existing chemical substances whose hazard reviews were completed between June and August 2025 (Serial Nos. 2026-715 to 2026-770). Accordingly, the following information was disclosed for each substance: the chemical name (including the CAS No.), whether it was designated as a substance hazardous to human health or the ecosystem, and its major hazard characteristics, as exemplified below.
[Examples: Classification based on the hazard review results (existing substances)]
| Unique number | Name of substance (CAS No.) | Acute human health hazard | Chronic human health hazard | Ecological hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-720 | Ammonium trioxovanadate; Ammonium vanadate (1:1) (7803-55-6) | Yes | Yes | － |
| 2026-722 | Divanadium pentaoxide (1314-62-1) | Yes | Yes | － |
| 2026-736 | Isobornyl acrylate (5888-33-5) | － | － | Yes |
| 2026-739 | Lead sulfate (7446-14-2) | － | Yes | Yes |
| 2026-740 | N,N-Dimethyl-1-hexadecanamine (112-69-6) | Yes | － | Yes |
| 2026-746 | 1-Ethylpyrrolidin-2-one; 1-Ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone (2687-91-4) | － | Yes | － |
2. Disclosure of chemical names following expiration of the data protection period
Under this amendment, following the expiration of the data protection period (2024), the chemical names (including CAS numbers) of substances that had been publicly notified under generic names were disclosed (67 substances).
Many of these new chemical substances were classified as “Others” in the present hazard review results and were not designated as substances hazardous to human health (acute or chronic) or as ecotoxic substances.
Note: The data protection system refers to a system under which the authorities restrict public disclosure of information deemed to constitute trade secrets among data submitted at the time of registration or notification of a chemical substance.
3. Other amendments made
- Revision of data of five existing chemical substances following the submission of additional data
- Revision of data of two substances that had been publicly notified in duplicate (Serial Nos. 2018-384 and 2019-530)
The full text of the notice is available on the website of NICS at the link below (Notice No. 129):
https://nics.mcee.go.kr/sub.do?menuId=111
