Data Requirements under K-REACH will be Reduced

South Korea’s Ministry of Environment (MoE) announced on 18 October 2017 that the data requirements under K-REACH for substances classified as non-hazardous under the UN GHS classifications would be reduced from June 2018.

The industry argued that the data requirements of non-hazardous substances should not be consistent with those of the hazardous substances or substances with potential hazards soon after K-REACH came into effect. For instance, if one substance is classified as non-hazardous under UN GHS classification, then only simplified dossier is requested. The number of test results required will also be reduced from 47 to 15, according to the requirements of the proposal, which significantly reduce the cost for relevant businesses.

In addition, no tests will be required for substances that only appear as temporary intermediates in annual volumes of under 1,000 tonnes during the manufacture of other products. For intermediates occurring in volumes of 1000 tonnes or over the simplified dossier including 15 tests will be sufficient. Substances with similar properties can be registered as a single substance from June 2018. This is because some metallic compounds have been registered as a group in OECD and EU.

However, the data requirements for the 510 Priority Existing Chemicals (PECs) remained unchanged as the deadline for PECs registration is June 2018.

Further Information

The Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals