On April 30, South Korea’s National Assembly passed into law new chemical control legislation modeled after the European Union＇s system “REACH,” or the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals. Enacted by the South Korean president earlier this month, the new law, known as K-REACH, establishes the annual registration start date as Jan. 1, 2015.

South Korea’s Ministry of Environment has said that “the purpose of the REACH law is to protect public health and the environment from risks of chemical substances and adapt to international trends toward mandating registration and evaluation of chemical substances.” K-REACH includes new and existing chemical notification requirements, establishes product safety review provisions and product safety labeling requirements, and authorizes sales bans and recall provisions.

The new K-REACH law mandates that every five years, the Minister of Environment (MOE) will establish a basic plan for the registration and evaluation of chemical substances, notification of products containing hazardous substances, and safety management of risks for use in products of concern. According to the law, a chemical substance business operator (person who manufactures, imports, uses, or sells/supplies chemicals for commercial purposes) shall report all of the volume of commercial activity (including manufacture/import and use, etc.) for the previous year. Reporting is required for all new chemical substances and existing chemical substances produced, distributed or used in quantities ≥ 1 metric ton. Special provisions require reporting chemicals produced, distributed and used in quantities less than 1 metric ton in cases where “concern of risk to human health or the environment is serious.”

A safety report/risk assessment is required under the new law for registering substances produced, distributed or used in quantities ≥ 10 metric tons/year or when deemed necessary from a hazard assessment developed by the MOE. While not explicitly defined, carcinogens, mutagenic, and reproductive/development (CMR), and persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) will likely be targeted.

Substance registrations are to be completed based on the following volume of reported activity:

≥100 metric tons – Jan 1, 2015;
≥70 metric tons after two years – Jan 1, 2017;
≥50 metric tons after three years – Jan 1, 2018;
≥20 metric tons after four years - Jan 1, 2019; and
≥10 metric tons after five years – Jan 2, 2020

K-REACH signifies a major shift in the approach to chemicals management regulation in South Korea, and is expected to create significant compliance costs for businesses.

Foreign companies selling chemicals and chemical-based products to South Korea are required to have a local K-REACH representative to facilitate required compliance.