Administrative Regulations on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (2011)

Administrative Regulations on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (2011)

Order of the State Council of the people's Republic of China No.591

March 2, 2011

The Administrative Regulations on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals has been advised and adopted at the 144th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sate Council on February 16, 2011. The amended Regulations on Safety Administration of Dangerous Chemicals are hereby promulgated and shall come into force on December 1, 2011.

Premier Wen Jiabao

Administrative Regulations on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals

(Promulgated by the 344th Order of the Sate Council of PRC on January 26, 2002 and amended and adopted at the 144th Standing Committee Meeting of the Sate Council on February 16, 2011)

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 In order to strengthen the administration on the safety of dangerous chemicals, to prevent and reduce dangerous chemicals accidents, to guarantee the safety of people's life and property and to protect the environment, these Regulations are hereby enacted.

Article 2 The administration on the safety of production, storage, use, operation and transportation of dangerous chemicals apply to these Regulations.
Disposal of the wasted dangerous chemicals shall be governed by laws, administrative regulations and relevant regulations of the State concerning environmental protection.

Article 3 "Dangerous chemicals" as referred to herein include hyper-toxic chemicals and other chemicals with the nature of toxic hazard, corrosiveness, explosiveness, flammability and combustion-supporting, which are dangerous to human body, facilities and environment.
The list of dangerous chemicals shall be determined, announced and adjusted from time to time according to the criteria on identification and classification of the hazard characteristics of chemicals by the production safe supervision and administration department of the State Council jointly with the administrative departments of the State Council in charge of industry and information, public security, environmental protection, health, quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, transport, railway, civil aviation, and agriculture, etc.

Article 4 The administration of dangerous chemicals safety shall follow the principles of "safety as the first concern, prevention as the main focus, making comprehensive control", and strengthen and carry out the subject responsibilities of enterprises.
The personnel chiefly in charge of the units that manufacture, store, use, deal in or transport the dangerous chemicals (hereinafter referred to as the "units of dangerous chemicals") shall take full responsibilities for the safety administration of their own dangerous chemicals.
The units of dangerous chemicals shall have the safety conditions stipulated by laws and administrative regulations and required by national standards and industrial standards, establish,amplify safety administration regulations and post safety responsibility system, and conduct safety and relevant laws educations and professional skills trainings. The working staff shall receive education and trainings, and can only hold the posts after passing the examination. For the posts requiring relevant qualifications, the personnel legally obtaining the corresponding qualifications shall be appointed.

Article 5 Any units and individuals shall not manufacture, deal in or use those dangerous chemicals, the manufacturing, operation and use of which are prohibited by the State.
If the State has any limited regulations on the use of any dangerous chemicals, any units and individuals shall not violate such limitation regulations to use the dangerous chemicals.

Article 6 The relevant departments in charge of supervision and administration of the manufacture, storage, use, operation and transportation of dangerous chemicals (hereinafter referred to as "dangerous chemicals production safety supervision and administration departments") shall fulfil their responsibilities according to the following provisions:
1. The production safety supervision and administration departments shall be in charge of the overall work of supervision and administration of dangerous chemicals safety, shall organize to determine, publicly announce and adjust the list of dangerous chemicals, inspect the safety conditions of those construction projects such as newly establishing, reconstructing or enlarging the manufacture and storage facilities of dangerous chemicals (including using long pipelines to transport dangerous chemicals, hereinafter inclusive), take the responsibilities of issuing dangerous chemicals safe production licenses, dangerous chemicals safe use permits and licenses for dealing in dangerous chemicals, and also take charge of the registration of dangerous chemicals.
2. The public security organs shall be responsible for the administration on public security of dangerous chemicals and the issuance of hyper-toxic chemicals purchase licenses and road transportation passes for hyper-toxic chemicals, and be responsible for supervision over the safety of the road transportation vehicles of dangerous chemicals.
3. The administrative departments of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine shall be responsible for issuing production licenses for industrial products to enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals and their packing materials and containers (excluding the fixed large containers storing dangerous chemicals), shall conduct supervision over the quality of the products of the above manufacturers pursuant to laws, and make inspections on imported and exported dangerous chemicals and their packaging.
4. The administrative departments of environmental protection shall be responsible for supervising and administering the disposal of wasted dangerous chemicals, organize the appraisal on the hazards of dangerous chemicals on environments and the environment pollution risk evaluation, determine the list of dangerous chemicals concerning which environment administration should be greatly emphasized, and shall be responsible for the registration of the environment administration of dangerous chemicals and new chemicals. Such departments shall also investigate the relevant dangerous chemical pollution accidents and the ecological damage incidents according to their duties, and shall be responsible for the emergency environment monitoring of the sites of dangerous chemicals accidents.
5. The administrative departments of transportation shall take charge of the safety administration on dangerous chemicals road transportation or waterway transportation permits and transportation vehicles, conduct supervisions on the safety of waterway transportation of dangerous chemicals, and shall be responsible for the qualifications of the drivers, crew members, loading and unloading personnel, transport escorts, declarers, and the staff conducting on-site inspection on the containers packing of the dangerous chemicals of the road transportation enterprises and waterway transportation enterprises. The railway administration departments shall be responsible for the safety administration of the railway transportation of dangerous chemicals, the examination and approval of the qualifications of the carriers and consignors of the railway transportation of dangerous chemicals, and the safety administration of transportation vehicles. The administrative departments of civil aviation shall be responsible for the air transportation of dangerous chemicals and safety administration of air transportation enterprises and their transportation vehicles.
6. The health administration departments shall be responsible for the administration on the authentication of toxicity of dangerous chemicals, and be responsible for organizing and coordinating the medical rescue of the injured caused by the accidents of dangerous chemicals.
7. The administrations for industry and commerce (AICs) shall, in accordance with the approvals or licenses issued by relevant departments, issue the business licenses for units that manufacture, store, deal in, or transport dangerous chemicals, and investigate the activities of illegally purchasing dangerous chemicals by enterprises dealing in dangerous chemicals and impose relevant punishments on such enterprises.
8. The post administration departments shall be responsible for investigating the acts of sending dangerous chemicals by post and imposing relevant punishments pursuant to laws.

Article 7 The dangerous chemicals safety supervision and administration departments may take the following measures to conduct supervision and examination pursuant to laws:
1. To enter into the operating sites of dangerous chemicals to make spot examinations, to learn the relevant information form the units and personnel concerned, and to refer to and reproduce the relevant documents and materials;
2. To order the parties concerned to eliminate the hidden risks of accidents of dangerous chemicals forthwith or within a specified time limit when such risks are discovered;
3. To order the parties concerned to cease forthwith the use of facilities, equipments, fittings, apparatus, and means of transport that fail to satisfy the relevant laws, administrative regulations, rules, or national standards or industrial standards;
4. After being approved by the main responsible personnel of the departments, to seal up the places where dangerous chemicals are illegally manufactured, stored, used and dealt in, to seize illegally manufactured, stored, used, dealt or transported dangerous chemicals as well as the raw materials, equipments and transportation means used in the manufacture, use and transportation of dangerous chemicals;
5. To make corrections on the spot, or to order the parties concerned to make corrections within a specified time limit when discovering any illegal acts which may affect the safety of dangerous chemicals.
The dangerous chemicals safety supervision and administration departments shall conduct supervision and inspection pursuant to laws. The supervision and inspection personnel shall be at least two persons, and shall produce their certificates when conducting inspections. The relevant units and individuals shall give relevant cooperation to the legally conducted supervision and inspection and shall not refuse or hinder the supervision and inspection.

Article 8 The people's governments at county level shall establish the coordination mechanism on the supervision and administration of dangerous chemicals safety, support and urge the dangerous chemicals safety supervision and administration departments to perform their duties pursuant to laws, and coordinate and resolve the main problems occurred during the supervision and administration on dangerous chemicals safety.
The dangerous chemicals safety supervision and administration departments shall coordinate with each other, closely cooperate, and strengthen supervision and administration over the safety of dangerous chemicals pursuant to laws.

Article 9 Any units and individuals shall have the right to report the acts violating the provisions of these Regulations to the dangerous chemicals safety supervision and administration departments. Such departments shall, upon receipt of the report, timely deal with it pursuant to laws. If the reported act is beyond the duties of the departments, the departments shall forward it to the departments concerned in a timely manner.

Article 10 The State encourages the enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals and the enterprises using dangerous chemicals to conduct production to adopt advanced techniques, crafts, equipments and automatic control system useful for improving security level, and encourage them to conduct specialized storage, unified distribution and centralized sales on dangerous chemicals.

Chapter II Manufacture and Storage Safety

Article 11 The State carries out unified planning and rational arrangement on the manufacture and storage of dangerous chemicals.
The department of the State Council in charge of industry and information and other relevant departments of the State Council shall, according to their respective duties, take responsibilities for the industrial planning and arrangement on the manufacture and storage of dangerous chemicals.
When making the overall urban and rural planning, the local people's governments shall, according to the local actual situation and based on the principle of ensuring safety, allocate appropriate areas to be specialized for manufacture and storage of dangerous chemicals.

Article 12 The safety conditions of the new construction, reconstruction or expansion of an enterprise for manufacture or storage of dangerous chemicals (hereinafter referred to as "construction projects") must be examined by the production safety supervision and administration departments.
The construction units shall demonstrate the safety conditions of the construction projects, entrust institutes with qualifications required by the State to conduct safety evaluation, and submit the report on the safety conditions demonstration and safety evaluation to the production safety supervision and administration departments of the people's governments above municipality (with districts) level where the construction projects are located. The production safety supervision and administration departments shall, within 45 days since the receipts of the reports, make the examination decisions, and notify the construction units in writing. The specific measures shall be stipulated by the department of the State Council in charge of supervision and administration on production safety.
The safety conditions of the new construction, reconstruction and expansion of the port construction projects of storing, loading and unloading dangerous chemicals shall be examined by the port administration departments in accordance with the provisions of the transport administration department of the State Council.

Article 13 The units manufacturing or storing dangerous chemicals shall set up prominent signs on the dangerous chemicals tubes laid by them, and inspect and test the dangerous chemicals tubes on regular basis.
In case of conducting constructions that may jeopardize the safety of dangerous chemicals tubes, the construction units shall notify the units which own the tubes 7 days before the commencement of the construction, and jointly with the units owning the tubes, make emergency pre-proposals and take corresponding safety protection measures. The units owning the tubes shall assign specialized personnel to provide on-site guidance on the safety protection of tubes.

Article 14 The enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals shall, before conducting manufacture, obtain dangerous chemicals production safety licenses according to the provisions of the "Regulations on Production Safety Licenses".
The enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals which are listed in the list of industrial products, on which the State carries out production licensing system, shall, in accordance with the provisions of the "Regulations of the PRC on the Administration of Production License for Industrial Products", obtain production licences for industrial products.
The departments responsible for issuing dangerous chemicals production safety licenses and production licenses for industrial products shall timely report the status on its issuance of licenses to the administrative departments in charge of industry and information and environmental protection and the public security organs at the same level.

Article 15 The manufacturers of dangerous chemicals shall provide the technical specifications for the safety of chemicals in full accord with dangerous chemicals manufactured by them, and shall affix or hang the safety signs for chemicals on the packing materials (including external packaging materials) in full accord with dangerous chemicals in the packing materials. The contents of the technical specifications for safety of chemicals and the safety signs for chemicals shall meet the requirements of national standards.
When finding that dangerous chemicals manufactured by them have new hazard characteristics, the enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals shall make public announcements forthwith, and modify the technical specifications for safety and the safety signs in time.

Article 16 The enterprises manufacturing dangerous chemicals on which key environmental administration is carried out shall, according to the regulations of the administrative department of the State Council in charge of environmental protection, report the relevant information concerning the release of such dangerous chemicals to the environment to the environmental protection administration department. The environmental protection administration department shall take corresponding environment risk control measures according to the specific situation.

Article 17 The packaging of dangerous chemicals must accord with laws, administrative regulations and rules, and satisfy the requirements of the national standards and industrial standards.
The material of the packaging and containers of dangerous chemicals, and the models, specifications, methods and unit quality (weight) shall be adapted to the nature and purposes of the packaged dangerous chemicals.

Article 18 The enterprises manufacturing the packing materials and containers of the dangerous chemicals in the list of industrial products on which the State carries out manufacture licensing system shall, in accordance with the provisions of the "Regulations of the PRC on the Administration of Production License for Industrial Products", obtain the production licenses for industrial products. The packing materials and containers of dangerous chemicals manufactured by them shall not be put into market until such packing materials and containers are examined as qualified by the examination institutes admitted by the administration department of the State Council in charge of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine.
The vessels transporting dangerous chemicals and the containers shipped by the vessels shall be manufactured in accordance with the vessel inspection criteria of the State, and shall not be used until being examined as qualified through inspection by the vessel inspection institutes admitted by maritime affairs regulatory authorities.
The packing materials and containers for repeated use shall be inspected before being used. If any hidden threat against safety is discovered, such packing materials and containers shall be repaired or replaced. The using units shall record the inspection situations and such record shall be kept for at least two years.

Article 19 The distance between the dangerous chemicals manufacturing installations or storage facilities the dangerous chemicals stored in which constitute serious hazard sources in quantity (except the oil fuelling stations for means of transport and gas stations) and the following places and areas must satisfy the national standards or the relevant provisions of the State:
1. resident estates, commercial centres, parks, and other densely inhabited districts;
2. schools, hospitals, cinemas, stadiums, gymnasiums, and other public facilities;
3. drinking water supply sources, water plants, and water source protection zones;
4.
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