Taiwan EPA to prohibit chlorpyrifosmethyl and chlorpyrifos under Environmental Chemicals Control Act

On March 4, 2022, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration gave advance notice of amendments to the “Prohibited Substances for Environmental Chemicals and Inspection Methods.” In this advance notice of amendment, “chlorpyrifosmethyl” and “chlorpyrifos” have been added to “Prohibited Substances for Environmental Chemicals.” The inclusion of “chlorpyrifosmethyl” is prohibited in the manufacture, processing, import, export, sale, or use of environmental chemicals. The inclusion of “chlorpyrifos” is prohibited in the manufacture, processing, and import of environmental chemicals. At present, the date of enforcement of the above provisions is not yet determined. According to the “Environmental Chemicals Control Act,” “environmental chemicals” refer to “environmental health, anti-pollution chemicals or microbial products.”

Addition of prohibited substances

In this advance notice of amendment, the following two types of substances have been added as prohibited substances.

*For “chlorpyrifos,” the current obtained permit expires on December 31, 2023. In addition, it is stipulated that if a license is obtained from the Environmental Protection Administration for the prevention of public health emergencies, it will not be subject to the regulation prohibiting inclusion.

Other relevant provisions

• In Item 3 of the advance notice of “Prohibited Substances for Environmental Chemicals and Inspection Methods,” the detection limit value for “prohibited substances” is 10 MDL (Method Detection Limit).
• According to the “Environmental Chemicals Control Act,” “environmental chemicals” refer to “environmental health, anti-pollution chemicals or microbial products.” In addition, there is no provision in the Act for articles treated with “environmental chemicals.”