Your regular update for technical and industry information
Your regular update for technical and industry information
JANUARY 2024 - ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS, HARDLINES, SOFTLINES, TOYS AND CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS
Australia recently published an amendment1 to update the Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management (Register) Instrument 20222. The amendment newly added certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to Schedules 6 and 7 of the above Instrument, with the earliest effective date being 1 July 2024.
To properly control chemical risk and reduce pollution, Australia implemented the Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management Standard (IChEMS) in 2021. This standard is a national approach to manage the use, storage, handling and disposal of chemicals, aiming to deliver nationally consistent environmental standards for managing industrial chemicals and make it easier for industries to choose less harmful chemicals.
The IChEMS has an Online Register3 listing all industrial chemicals used in Australia and categorizing them based on their environmental risk. Chemicals are assigned to one of seven schedules, with Schedule 1 representing the lowest risk and Schedule 7 the highest risk. In this amendment, nona- and decaBDE are classified as Schedule 6 chemicals, which are likely to cause serious or irreversible harm to the environment with essential use. Other chemicals (e.g. PFAS, HBCDD, SCCPs, etc.) are designated in Schedule 7 (same characteristics as Schedule 6 but with no essential use).
Additionally, this amendment includes the definition of unintentional trace contamination, meaning a chemical is present unintentionally and unavoidably below the level stated in the Instrument that the chemical cannot be meaningfully used. Certain requirements are established based on international practices, particularly following the Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) Regulation (EU) 2019/10214 in the European Union (EU). Table A shows the details of the newly added chemicals and corresponding requirements.
Table A: Summary of newly added POPs, their requirements and effective dates
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Brominated flame retardants |
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|
Substances |
Requirement |
Effective Date |
|
Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) |
Substances, mixtures and articles: HBCDD: ≤ 100 mg/kg |
1 July 2024 |
|
Tetrabromodiphenyl ether (tetraBDE), Pentabromodiphenyl ether (pentaBDE), Hexabromodiphenyl ether (HexaBDE), Heptabromodiphenyl (HeptaBDE), Octabromodiphenyl ether (OctaBDE)
|
Substances and mixtures:
Articles of electrical and electronic equipment:
Articles other than electrical and electronic equipment:
|
1 July 2024 |
|
Decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE); nonabromodiphenyl ether (all three congeners) (nonaBDE) |
Substances and mixtures:
Articles of electrical and electronic equipment except specific products (see remark 1):
Articles (other than the electrical and electronic equipment):
|
1 July 2025 |
| Per- and polyfluoroalky substances (PFAS) |
||
| Substances |
Requirement |
Effective Date |
|
Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), including its linear and branched isomers, their salts and any substance containing a linear or branched perfluorohexylsulfonyl moiety that can degrade to PFHxS. |
Substances, mixtures and articles
|
1 July 2025 |
|
Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), including any of its branched isomers, its salts, perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride, and any substance containing a linear or branched perfluorooctanesulfonyl moiety and capable of degrading to PFOS (linear or branched). |
Substances, mixtures and articles
|
1 July 2025 |
|
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), including any of its branched isomers, its salts and any related compound that contains a linear or branched perfluoroheptyl (C7H15C) group and which can degrade to linear or branched PFOA. |
Substances, mixtures and articles
|
1 July 2025 |
| Others |
||
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Pentachlorobenzene (PeCB) |
Substances, mixtures and articles:
|
1 July 2024 |
|
Short chain chlorinated paraffins (alkanes, C10-13, chloro), which are straight chain chlorinated alkanes with chain lengths ranges from C10 to C13 and a chlorine content of greater than 48% by weight (SCCP) |
Substances and mixtures
Articles:
|
1 July 2024 |
Remark 1:
Specific products refer to plastic housings and parts used for heating appliances, irons, fans, immersion heaters that contain or are in direct contact with electrical parts or are required to comply with fire retardancy standards, at concentrations lower than 10% by weight of the part.
[2] Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management (Register) Instrument 2022
[4] Consolidated version of EU POPs Regulation
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