The Thai government has released a first draft of a law proposed to replace the country’s current Hazardous Substances Act. In an article published on July 17, 2019, by regulatory news provider Chemical Watch, the draft law is described as being a “shift to a risk-based regulation” and adopting a “precautionary principle approach” as well as the application of “life cycle management” for chemical substances. The draft (published in Thai) describes the structure of chemicals management in the country as comprising a top-level national committee responsible for reporting, an assessment committee to classify substances on a scale from 1 (low risk) to 4 (prohibited), and a committee of specialists focusing on agriculture, public health, as well as “industrial and other” chemicals.
The draft provides limited additional details describing how the classification might be done, and it only mentions the creation a new chemicals inventory in the country “expected no earlier than 2020.” It is described as being simply a first draft for public review. If implemented, the main impact for businesses is forecasted to be the required evaluation of substances not already within the national chemicals inventory. Chemical Watch notes that in Asia only four countries (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) have developed national chemical inventories with defined requirements for registering new chemicals.
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Sunny Lee (July 17, 2019). “Thailand publishes first draft proposal of new chemical law.” Chemical Watch
