Ministry of Labor of Taiwan revises “Standard for hazard prevention of specific chemical substances” 
On September 16, 2021, the Ministry of Labor of Taiwan officially released the revised “Standard for hazard prevention of specific chemical substances”. In order to protect workers, the standard classified the specific chemical substances into category A, B, C, D, and specified the employer’s obligations such as prohibiting or restricting these specific chemical substances in factories. The main amendments of this time are as follows.
Addition of substances not applicable
The revised standard added that if a specific chemical substance belongs to the “manufactured article” stipulated in the Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the “Rules for hazardous chemicals labeling and general knowledge”, it will not applicable to this standard.
| Manufactured article: Article that has been formed into a specific shape or design during manufacturing process, and the end use are fully or partly determined by this specific shape or design. In addition, the article doesn’t release any hazardous chemicals under normal use condition. |
Addition of chemical substances and change of classification
The following chemical substances have been newly added.
| Chemical substances | Management classification | Requirements for different management classification（partially） |
| 1,3-butadiene | Category C type 1
Specific management substance |
Category C type 1： When produce this type of substance, the manufacturing equipment should keep closed and the operator should operate it from an isolated room with a remote control.Category C type 3： For indoor work areas where there is filled with gas, vapor and dust of this type of substance, a closed equipment or a local exhaust unit should be installed at each exhaust source. Specific management substance： |
| Propylene oxide | Category C type 1 | |
| Indium and its compounds,
Cobalt and its inorganic compounds, Naphthalene |
Category C type 3 |
The management classification of the following chemical substance has been revised.
|
Chemical substance |
After revised |
Before revised |
| Formaldehyde | Category C type 1
Specific managed substance |
Category D |
Other additions
A provision has been added that for the gas exhaust unit, a monitoring device that can display such as static pressure and flow velocity, which can indicate the normal operation of the unit, should be installed. A provision requiring workers to use protective equipment if they are at the risk of exposure to specific chemical substances has been added.
Enforcement date of the revised standard
Considering that it will take some time to develop solutions to this revision, the designated articles (all the articles related to protective equipment are excluded) will come into effect on July 1, 2023.
For the original text of the above revised standard, please refer to the following URL (in traditional Chinese).
https://laws.mol.gov.tw/news.aspx?msgid=5580
