The Taiwan Area Drafts First Batch of Pecs for Registration

A first draft of the first batch of priority existing chemicals (Pecs) requiring registration under the Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (TCSCA) has been shared at an internal workshop organised by the Taiwan area's EPA on 9 June.

Speaking at ChemCon Asia in Beijing last week, Dr Jowett Li, director of the Taiwan area's Safety and Health Technology Centre (Sahtech), said the list, which has not been made public, contains 122 substances. There will be three batches in total.

EPA Toxic Substances and Chemicals Bureau deputy director general Chen Shu-linChen told Chemical Watch this week that the final draft will be released for a required 60-day period of public comment and consultation as early as early September and that the finalised list will be released "no later than the end of this year."

According to material from a draft plan provided by the bureau, the first set of registrations of toxic chemicals on promulgated lists of priority and designated toxic chemicals will take place from the beginning of 2018 through 2021, followed by a second set of registrations from 2021 through 2024 and a third tranche of registrations from 2024 through 2027.

Company choice

Dr Li said in Beijing that the EPA told the workshop it plans to allow the omission of endpoints for registration where there is public domain information, and to allow companies to choose whether to do joint or individual registrations (with data sharing). Using information collected during the pre-registration phase (which is continuing as 'post pre-registration'), substances in the first batch of Pecs were chosen according to their level of hazard and potential exposure. They have been designated as high, medium or low priority based on a risk matrix. This will prioritise the chemicals that the EPA intends to designate for standard registration.

The TCSCA is currently undergoing a major revision, and the amended version will allow the omission of endpoints for registration where there is public domain testing information, said Dr Li. An analysis of the data available for more than 900 of the highest risk chemicals has shown that between 30-70% of endpoints could be omitted from registration requirements, depending on the substance.

Dr Li also said the current intention, according to the TCSCA, is to let companies decide whether they should do joint or individual registrations based on their business interests. He added that periodical reporting on chemical volumes is coming, but the timing and frequency of these reports has not yet been finalised.