The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (Draft for Comment) added a new chapter Abandoned Disposal Safety, which clarified the supervision responsibility of the ecological and environmental authorities responsible for the disposal of discarded hazardous chemicals; added more than 20 administrative penalties to clarify Defines the supervisory responsibilities of relevant departments in the six major links of hazardous chemicals management.
my country's first hazardous chemical safety law for public comments
Recently, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (Draft for Soliciting Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the Draft for Soliciting Comments) drafted by the Ministry of Emergency Management was publicly solicited for comments. The deadline for feedback is November 1, 2020.
The Draft for Solicitation of Comments added a new chapter on Waste Disposal Safety, strengthened the safety management of hazardous chemical waste disposal, added more than 20 administrative penalties, and clearly defined the responsibilities of 10 regulatory agencies in the six major links of hazardous chemicals, etc. . This means that there will be laws to follow for the disposal of hazardous chemicals in the future.
The Emergency Management Department’s drafting instructions show that the Draft for Solicitation of Comments is based on the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals. It lasted one and a half years and was revised and improved and upgraded to law. my country's hazardous chemicals legislation can be traced back to the Regulations on the Safety Management of Chemical Hazardous Materials issued by the State Council in 1987 (repealed in March 2002), which has been more than 30 years ago. The Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals came into effect on March 15, 2002, and were revised in February 2011 and December 2013.
Xue Changli, deputy dean of the Faculty of Arts and Law, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said that the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals played an important role in regulating the safety management of hazardous chemicals. However, with the revision of the Safety Production Law of the People's Republic of China and the reform of the emergency management system , It is not enough to meet the needs of reality, and it is necessary to raise the level of legislation and legislate in the form of laws.
Zhao Laijun, a distinguished professor of Hujiang Leading Talents at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and Dean of the Business School of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, said that as my country's first hazardous chemical safety law, the Draft for Comments is of great significance to the supervision of hazardous chemical safety.
Hazardous chemicals management urgently needs legislation
Xue Changli said that the chemical industry occupies an important position in the development of the national economy. Chemicals are closely related to people's clothing, food, housing, and transportation. The legislation on safe production of hazardous chemicals plays an important role in protecting people's lives, health, and economic development. In recent years, some hazardous chemical safety production accidents have exposed many problems, and it is urgent to legislate for the supervision of hazardous chemicals.
As an expert on the safety management of hazardous chemicals for a long time, Zhao Laijun led the team through years of research and found that from January 2006 to September 2020, more than 12,000 hazardous chemical accidents occurred in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in my country, causing more than 6,000 deaths. More than 24,000 people were injured.
The safety of hazardous chemicals is becoming more and more prominent. Zhao Laijun said that the current penalties for the relevant units and individuals responsible for hazardous chemical production safety accidents are mainly based on the Criminal Law, Work Safety Law, Fire Protection Law and other laws, and the Safety of Dangerous Chemicals Management Regulations, Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate's Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases Endangering Production Safety, and Regulations on Reporting, Investigation and Handling of Production Safety Incidents, etc. The supervision of hazardous chemicals urgently requires further improvement of relevant laws. This time, it is of great significance to the legislation on the safety management of hazardous chemicals.
Xue Changli said: Legislation is a matter of course. Since 2016, the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Development of Work Safety and Regulations on the Work Safety Responsibility System for Local Party and Government Leading Cadres have been classified as hazardous chemicals. Legislation provides basic follow and direction.
Identify hazardous chemicals
Disposal supervision body
On March 21, 2019, Tianjiayi Chemical Co., Ltd. in Xiangshui County Ecological Chemical Park, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, suffered a particularly serious explosion, causing 78 deaths, 76 serious injuries, 640 hospitalizations, and direct economic losses of more than 1.9 billion yuan . Subsequent investigation found that this was a particularly serious production safety accident caused by an explosion caused by long-term illegal storage of hazardous waste.
In order to strengthen the safety management of the disposal of hazardous chemicals, the Draft for Solicitation of Comments added a chapter on Safety of Disposal of Hazardous Chemicals, and in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes and related regulations revised and implemented in 2020, Clarified the supervision responsibility of the ecological environment department responsible for the disposal of waste hazardous chemicals.
Xue Changli believes that the Draft for Solicitation of Comments adds a chapter on Disposal Safety of hazardous chemicals to be of great significance. On the one hand, the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals and others do not clearly stipulate the safety of disposal of hazardous chemicals and the production, operation, transportation, storage, and use of hazardous chemicals; on the other hand, waste hazardous chemicals are dangerous, Pollution is a serious threat to the safety of people’s lives and properties. The Draft for Comments stipulates that the competent department of ecological environment shall be responsible, highlighting the management of waste hazardous chemicals from the perspective of ecological and environmental protection.
Zhao Laijun said that in recent years, the safety of the disposal of hazardous chemicals has attracted more and more attention, and accidents of improper disposal of hazardous chemicals have occurred in many places, warning people to pay attention to the safety management of hazardous chemical disposal. The series of regulations in the Disposal Safety chapter of the Draft for Comments can more clearly guide enterprises to conduct standardized safety management, clarify the responsibility of the ecological and environmental authorities in charge of the supervision of hazardous chemical waste disposal, and help the country to dispose of hazardous chemicals. Seamless management of the whole process of the whole process to fill in regulatory loopholes and gaps.
Added more than 20 administrative punishment measures
The reporter noted that in order to increase the penalties for illegal acts, the Draft for Solicitation of Comments added provisions on the confiscation of relevant tools, equipment, and raw materials for illegal activities, and imposed fines of more than 5 times and less than 10 times the value of the goods. 20 More than one administrative penalty. Clearly implement double penalties measures for serious violations, imposing a fine on the unit that violates the law, as well as the main responsible person, the person in charge, and other directly responsible personnel until administrative detention. At the same time, the Draft for Soliciting Opinions also stipulates the specific methods for the relevant departments to implement joint punishments.
In Zhao Laijun’s view, at present, the relevant provisions of the Draft for Comments supervise the entire process and all-round supervision of the prevention, response during the incident, and punishment of hazardous chemicals. It not only regulates the six major links of production, transportation, storage, use, operation, and disposal of hazardous chemicals, but also regulates various aspects including the related industrial chain (such as design, evaluation, evaluation, review, consulting, etc.) Supervision. This will help to further strictly implement the main responsibility and joint responsibility of hazardous chemical related units for safe production, establish and improve the self-discipline and self-improvement mechanism of safe production, and improve the level of enterprise safety management.
Zhao Laijun believes that on this basis, it is necessary to increase efforts to pursue accountability in advance, and through amendments to the criminal law or judicial interpretation, for deliberately concealing major safety and environmental hazards and other serious violations, criminal responsibility should be investigated in accordance with the law. Those who are responsible for serious accidents, or who have received criminal penalties or dismissal for failing to perform their work safety duties, shall not serve as the main person in charge of enterprises in the industry for life.
Xue Changli believes that the Draft for Solicitation of Comments stipulates that the punishment measures have been improved to some extent, but its effect should not be overestimated. He believes that from the perspective of legal liability, the Draft for Solicitation of Comments mainly provides for administrative punishment, which still needs to be regulated in terms of criminal liability through an amendment to the Criminal Law. More importantly, at the conceptual level, it is necessary to establish the idea that life safety is better than economic development, and it is recommended to make it clear in the general rules.
Clarify the supervisory responsibilities of 10 departments
Since the safety management of hazardous chemicals involves many departments and laws and regulations, the Draft for Solicitation of Comments clearly defines the division of responsibilities of the hazardous chemical safety supervision departments. It defines emergency management, public security, market supervision, ecological environment, transportation, health, natural resources, industry and information technology, and housing from the production, storage, use, operation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous chemicals. Responsibilities of the 10 competent departments of urban and rural construction and customs. At the same time, additional provisions have been added to require other departments to perform safety production supervision and management duties for hazardous chemicals in related industries in accordance with their respective duties.
Zhao Laijun believes that the six major links of hazardous chemicals business management are characterized by complex technology and business, high interrelationship, and high safety standards. The Draft for Solicitation of Comments is not enough to provide the existing principles and regulations. The functions of various departments should be integrated and optimized in accordance with relevant regulations, and the rights and obligations of various safety management departments should be clarified, such as how emergency management departments coordinate and coordinate resources.
Xue Changli said that how to strengthen coordination between various departments in specific law enforcement, especially how to strengthen coordination at the grassroots level, is still a problem. Supervision is terminal supervision. The more you reach the county and city-level administrative departments, the more you need to coordinate the performance of duties. If coordination is not effective, there may be supervision overlap. He suggested that this issue should be refined through local legislation and implementation rules to highlight the government's Supervising responsibility to make supervision more effective. In addition, he believes that the human resources and social security departments should be included in its supervision department.
Zhao Laijun suggested establishing a seamless safety management system for hazardous chemicals. In his view, after the promulgation and implementation of the Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law, in the supervision of hazardous chemicals, it is necessary to establish a normal cooperation and coordination mechanism and a supervision network between the supervision departments in the city and between the provinces and cities, and integrate the two. Through the network, the seamless safety management of hazardous chemicals can be realized through the entry of production enterprises into the park, monitoring on storage enterprises, joint control of transportation enterprises, entry of operating enterprises into the market, focus on key points of use enterprises, and joint regulation of disposal links.
