Vietnam updates its Law on Chemicals
The Decree 82/2022/ND-CP, which came into force last December 2022, updates the existing Decree 113/2017/ND-CP and introduces several amendments to guide the implementation of the Law on Chemicals. Thus, the Decree 82/2022/ND-CP aims to align Vietnamese chemical safety requirements to UN GHS Rev.2 (2007).
Here are some of its major novelties:
- a) Amendment of Article 23: It provides a new table of building blocks in line with UN GHS Rev.2 onwards, which can be adopted for chemical classification.
- b) Correction of Article 24: The concentration limit for a hazard class-skin/respiratory sensitization was revised from 0.1% to 1.0%.
- c) New substances added to lists regulated under the decree:
- • 10 chemicals and 6 industrial precursors to the List of Conditional Chemicals in the Industrial Field.
- • 6 POPs to the List of Restricted Chemicals in the Industrial Field and the List of Chemicals Subject to Compulsory Declaration.
- • Revise one item (Number 231) in the List of Chemicals Subject to Developing an Incident Prevention and Response Plan (Annex IV), from Mercury fulminate to Mercury and its compounds.
- d) Update chemicals’ lists not covered by the Decree: This refers to radioactive substances, building materials, paints, printing ink, household adhesives and cleaning products and gasoline.
- e) Update on chemical safety training: Facilities that have chemical-related activities shall provide training courses in chemical safety every 2 years.
- f) Requirement on general report: Starting on January 15th, 2023, companies with chemical-related activities must provide annual general reports on chemical handling within their facilities.
This revision also specifies chemicals that require special management for import, simplifies the document requirements for license application or sets a limit on impurity content in chemicals.