China Seeks Comments on New GB 30000 Standards

By Lily Hou, PhD, CHMM, senior regulatory specialist, Supply Chain team, UL Solutions 

In June 2023, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released 12 National Standards for public comments, including two China GHS standards for chemicals: 

• GB 30000.1-202X: Rules for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals: Part 1 General Specifications 
• GB 30000.30-202X: Rules for classification and labelling of chemicals - Part 30: Desensitized explosives

GB30000.1 (General Specifications) is based on the 8th edition of the UN GHS, and will replace GB 13690-2009 (General rule for classification and hazard communication of chemicals) after its release. Compared to GB 13690-2009, GB 30000.1 amends the classification of chemicals with inclusion of a new hazard class: desensitized explosives. It also removes the definitions and descriptions for individual hazard classes since the rest of the GB 30000 standards (GB 30000.2-GB 30000.30) provide detailed rules for each hazard category. Classification criteria and general considerations for mixtures are discussed in the new standard.

As a general standard, GB30000.1 does not impose any new requirement for chemical labeling.  Since implementation of the new standard will not involve changing product labels by chemical product suppliers, the industries are only given a transition period of 6 month to comply with this standard. After GB 30000.1 is released, the revision project of GB 30000.2-GB 30000.29, which are currently aligned with GHS Rev. 4, will be launched by MIIT to eliminate the version difference between China GHS and the UN GHS.

GB 30000.30 (Desensitized explosives) is a new addition to the GB 30000 standard series for desensitized explosives. It contains definitions, classification criteria, decision logic, guidance and labeling of desensitized explosives. This new standard is based on the 9th edition of the UN GHS and will come into force one year after publishing.

Any comments on these two new standards can be sent to KJBZ@miit.gov.cn by Aug. 16, 2023.

Source

Notice of public solicitation of comments for 12 mandatory national standards including the Rules for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GB 30000.1 and GB 30000.30), in Chinese only