(Background) With regard to chemical accidents, the Chemicals Control Act requires facilities handling hazardous chemicals to prepare an off-site consequence analysis, while the Occupational Safety and Health Act provides for the submission of process safety report, thereby placing great burden on the facilities to conduct inspections as well as submit reports.

(Main issue) Off-site consequence analysis reports and process safety reports are similar in nature, yet each require different documents for submission. Therefore, suggestions were made to either unify the submission requirements or allow both ministries to accept documents required from the other ministry in order to eliminate redundancy.

(Resolution) In December 2016, negotiations with the relevant organization and the Roundtable on Chemical Product Regulations were conducted to stress the need to address redundant regulations. Next, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Employment and Labor, and MOTIE, an ‘Investigation Team to Eliminate Redundant Regulations’ was formed to unify submission requirements and create a system of mutual acceptance of documents. Finally, the Ministry of Environment newly inserted the Article 5-3 on the Regulations on Off-site Consequence Analysis, providing a legal basis for unified submission requirements for off-site consequence analysis reports in January 2017.

(Result) The National Institute of Chemical Safety informed the company about the publication of the Guidelines on Unified Process and unified notification procedure for off-site consequence analysis and process safety report.