Draft of Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law Under First Review

Recently, the draft of the Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law was submitted to the 13th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress for review.

The draft has been submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for the first time, aiming to strengthen the full-chain safety management and safety in all aspects of hazardous chemicals.

Due to their flammable, explosive, toxic, and harmful properties, hazardous chemicals are prone to causing severe consequences when accidents occur. As China ranks among the top in the world for the production, use, import, export, and consumption of hazardous chemicals, the industry is massive in scale, involves numerous sectors, is widely distributed, and has a complex safety management chain. With the rapid development of the economy and society, the situation of hazardous chemicals' safe production is becoming increasingly severe, necessitating urgent legislation to address these challenges. Therefore, formulating the Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law will provide key legal support for enhancing the modernization of the safety governance system and governance capacity for hazardous chemicals.

The draft consists of 9 chapters and 124 articles, with core content including:

• Adhering to the principle of safety first, prevention foremost, and comprehensive governance.
• Implementing safety management responsibilities in industries, operations, and production.
• Defining the responsibilities of relevant departments such as emergency management, public security, market regulation, ecological environment, and transportation.
• For emerging industries and fields, where safety regulatory responsibilities are unclear, county-level and above governments will determine the regulatory authority based on the principle of similar operations.
• Chemical parks must be recognized and announced by provincial governments or their authorized institutions, and new parks must undergo safety risk assessments organized by provincial governments.
• Chemical parks are required to regularly conduct holistic safety risk assessments and perform dynamic monitoring of all hazardous chemicals within the park.

The draft also mandates:

• Enterprises producing or storing hazardous chemicals to strengthen process safety management, install necessary safety facilities and equipment, and undergo safety evaluations every three years.
• Prohibiting individuals from purchasing highly toxic chemicals and explosive precursor chemicals, and banning the sale or purchase of such chemicals via the internet.
• Establishing a national hazardous chemicals registration system to provide technical and informational support for safety management, accident prevention, and emergency response.
• Granting site supervisors, team leaders, and dispatchers the authority to order production stoppages and evacuations during emergencies.

Additionally, the draft imposes strict legal liability on units that violate hazardous chemical safety management requirements, as well as on local governments, relevant departments, and their personnel for corresponding violations.