Kashinhou (化審法), short for , ("Law Concerning the Examination and Regulation of Manufacture, etc. of Chemical Substances") (Showa Act No. 117, 昭和48年法律第117号) is the current Chemicals and dangerous substances regulation law in Japan. The more concise abbreviated name is , or "Chemical Substances Control Law". This law featured the world's first new chemical pre-examination system.

Coverage

This law was established to provide a framework to examine the import, manufacture, and use of industrial chemicals and refractory organic substances for persistence and health consequences, as well as the necessary legal restrictions in order to achieve those aims.

History

The law has its origins in 1968, with an illness related to

polychlorinated biphenyls Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by ...

poisoning in the Kanemi Oil Incident. In 1973, this law was established, radically overturning a prevailing attitude that long term contaminants bioaccumulating in humans was not problematic. Refractory organic substances, highly enriched uranium, and substances that possess long term toxicity to humans were classified as Section 1 Chemical Substances. Section 1 items were banned from manufacture or importation. In 1986, a Section 2 Chemical Substances was added, which included

trichloroethylene The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a halocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear, colourless non-flammable liquid with a chloroform-like sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, w ...

and

tetrachloroethylene Tetrachloroethylene, also known under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, or perchloroethylene, and many other names (and abbreviations such as "perc" or "PERC", and "PCE"), is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2 . It is a colorless li ...

, which had contaminated groundwater. Questionable chemical substances that did not fall into above categories were introduced into a Section 2 Questionable Chemical substances category. In 1999, the government ministries were reorganized, and the

Ministry of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

was added as an overseer to the precursor ministries of the current

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare The is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as in Japan. The ministry provides services on health, labour and welfare. It was formed with the merger of the former Ministry of Health and Welfare or and the ...

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The or METI, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic activiti ...

. In 2003, under pressure from the

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

, a third Section was created to surveillance of chemical substances harmful to flora and fauna but not to humans. Regulation, policing, and surveillance of other laws, namely the Poisonous and Deleterious Substance Control Law, Stimulant Control Law, and Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law were transferred to the current ministries as mentioned above.

Example of Chemical inventories in various countries/regions

Regulated Chemicals Information - American Chemical Society
* Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1907/2006 (REACH) * AICS - Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances * DSL - Canadian Domestic Substances List * NDSL - Canadian Non-Domestic Substances List * KECL (Korean ECL) - Korean Existing Chemicals List * ENCS (MITI) - Japanese Existing and New Chemical Substances * PICCS - Philippine Inventory of Chemicals and Chemical Substances * TSCA - US Toxic Substances Control Act * SWISS - Giftliste 1 * SWISS - Inventory of Notified New Substances

References

{{HealthIssuesOfPlastics Health law in Japan Toxicology

Coverage

History

Example of Chemical inventories in various countries/regions

See also

References