Management of Chemical Substances

Bringing a new product to market requires the filing of numerous application, registration and report documents in line with each country’s regulations. Inside Japan, the Chemical Control Act^*1 and Safety and Health Act^*2 demand that we file new chemical substance applications and, particularly in the case of the former, numerous other documents. Our responses to the revised Chemical Management Act^*3 taking effect in 2023, and the revised Industrial Safety and Health Act taking effect in 2024, involve enhancing our systems for appropriate emissions management and self-directed chemical substance management.
With the worldwide fixing and revision of chemical laws and regulations progressing apace, we are utilizing a searchable database of all laws and regulations in Japan, Europe and America to gain up-to-date information on regulatory trends and amendments, and thereby mount appropriate responses.

The worldwide introduction of GHS^* has spawned demands for Safety Data Sheets (SDS) conforming to local laws and regulations to be issued in the language of the country in question, and for product labels to be attached. Nippon Kayaku initiatives have included appropriately responding to the revised Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) of 2019 by altering SDS and labels accordingly.
The Fine Chemicals Business Unit operates the “3E generate” SDS-creation system equipped with abundant translations, each country’s legal and regulatory data, substance properties and toxicity data, to issue SDS compliant with both local laws and regulations and attach relevant GHS product labels.

The EU’s REACH^* regulations were implemented in June 2007. Drawing no distinction between existing and new chemical substances, these regulations made it compulsory to provide safety test data when registering chemicals (including chemical products containing chemical compounds) either manufactured or exported into the European region in annual volumes of one ton or more. Their implementation has led to a toughening of chemical substance registration regulations in numerous countries, causing us to forever confirm the latest regulatory trends and respond without omissions.
In our Fine Chemicals Business Unit, our efforts to respond to domestic and international chemical substance registration systems; grasp each country’s trends regarding chemical laws, draft relevant proposals, inform relevant departments and offer guidance on relevant responses; and manage product SDS and labels as part of chemical quality control are coordinated and supported by our Chemical Quality Control Division.

We provide education programs at every plant, and for each workforce layer, aimed at improving safety consciousness. We are currently enriching the education contents on chemical laws and regulations, including the so-called “Three SDS Laws”: The Chemical Management Act, The Safety and Health Act, and the Poisonous Substances Act.

The Nippon Kayaku Group belongs to the Japan Chemical Industry Association and has signed up to Long-range Research Initiatives (LRI) since 1999. In addition to shouldering part of the research funding burden, we also sit on the committee.
The LRI proceeds under the umbrella of the Japanese, American and European chemical industries (The Japan Chemical Industry Association, The American Chemistry Council, and the European Chemistry Industry Council). A voluntary activity conducted by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), it focuses on increasing the accuracy of risk assessments for internal secretion and endocrine disrupting action, neurotoxicity, chemical carcinogenesis and immunotoxicity, and supports long-term research of the effects of chemical substances on the environment and people’s health.

Our Safety Systems Business Unit makes use of the GADSL^* to clarify the chemical substances that must either be banned from products or whose presence must at least be grasped. In addition to strictly managing Substances of Concern, Safety Systems is working to reduce use of such substances at every step of the product process: development, planning, procurement, production and distribution. The GADSL is a global-standard list of Substances of Concern compiled by leading automobile makers, parts makers and chemical manufacturers in Japan, Europe and the USA. It divides Substances of Concern into various categories such as: Prohibited (P), Declarable or Prohibited (D/P) and Declarable (D).

In line with chemical substance management regulations, our Fine Chemicals Business Unit defines substances posing environmental and health hazards to be managed in Nippon Kayaku products as “Environmental Impact Substances.” These are further divided into the categories of “Prohibited Substances” and “Controlled Substances”, and managed accordingly. “Prohibited Substances” constitute those chiefly comprised of chemicals regulated under the RoHS Directive (see below) or constituting Class 1 Specified Chemicals in the Chemical Substances Control Law, whose use, manufacture and sale we have decided, in principle, to ban. “Controlled Substances” refer to those included in the REACH Annex XIV (Authorization List), REACH Annex XVII (Restricted Substances) and REACH SVHC (Candidate List of substances of very high concern for Authorization). Along with minimizing their use, we assess the risks of their appearance in a product and set up appropriate management practices based on domestic and international laws and regulations, and customer demands.