Is Russian national technical regulation on chemicals to be enforced this autumn? Let’s find out

Since the enactment of the Technical Regulation of the EAEU 041/2017 “On safety of chemicals” keeps getting delayed, Russia plans to introduce its own similar technical regulation.

In May the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia published a draft RF government decree “On the technical regulation “On safety of chemicals”. Its public discussion lasted twenty days.

According to the draft concept note, the Rospotrebnadzor is going to be responsible for the control of compliance with the requirements of the technical regulation. The draft also includes a transition period of one to five years (depending on the type of chemical and its tonnage).

Although the texts of the proposed Russian TR and the TR EAEU 041/2017 are similar, there are noticeable differences. For example, the text of the Russian TR contains so-called “substances of concern” which is roughly equal to the “restricted substances” category present in the TR EAEU 041/2017. But “substances of concern” include three extra types of substances, not listed in the TR EAEU 041/2017:

— endocrine disruptors,

— persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances (PBT),

— very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB).

It’s proposed that the Russian TR will be enforced in the autumn of 2023.

Industry representatives note that some frequently asked questions were not responded to (i.e., which substances will be included in the register of chemicals and mixtures, will there be additional inventorying periods, etc.). As of now not all supporting documents required for the Russian technical regulation to work, are published (for instance, there are no classification rules on what’s a chemical of concern versus a banned chemical).

In the third/fourth quarter of 2023, a training course dedicated to the Russian technical regulation on the safety of chemicals will be organized by RTU MIREA (www.mirea.ru) in partnership with Aventine. Training courses on safety data sheets will also take place.

Also, as part of the Innoprom conference which will take place in Kazakhstan in September, there are plans for an event concerning the planned changes in handling of chemicals and the corresponding technical regulations, as well as other long-term planning documents.

We will keep a close look at the situation and publish any important updates.