- Date:2021-08-20
- Department:Evaluation Management Division
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced to add ammonium nitrate and hydrofluoric acid to the list of regulated hazardous concerned chemical substances to enhance the handling and management thereof, including the production, import, sale, use, transportation and storage of related products. Apart from demanding the operators to obtain an approval, declare related operations and abide by accident prevention and emergency response regulations, the EPA also prohibits the trading of these chemical substances online. Furthermore, the labeling of all hydrofluoric acid products selling on the market must now be done properly to prevent accidental injuries caused by improper use.
Heavy penalty is imposed by the EPA. If the responsible party fails to handle ammonium nitrate and hydrofluoric acid in compliance with the regulations, the person shall be fined from NT$ 30,000 to 300,000. If the responsible party causes death or endangers the health of other person, life imprisonment or at least 7 years of imprisonment can be imposed with a fine of NT$ 10 million at most. The responsible party who does not comply with regulations regarding risk prevention and response plans shall be fined from NT$ 30,000 to 500,000. The responsible party who does not purchase liability insurance or keep emergency response, detection and alarm equipment shall be fined from NT$1 million to 5 million. The EPA pointed out that ammonium nitrate is a raw material for producing nitrous oxide (laughing gas), which is the first concerned chemical substance listed by the EPA.; and that an improper storage thereof could cause an explosion as it did at Beirut Port in Lebanon, which has captured world attention. As for hydrofluoric acid, the EPA said that a number of casualty accidents also occurred previously and these are the reasons that the EPA announced these two chemical substances as regulated concerned chemical substances.
The EPA explained that the products with low concentration of hydrofluoric acid selling on the market such as aluminum cleaner, exterior wall cleaner and scale cleaner, which is normally lower than 10%, can result in injuries due to misuses of these products or delays in proper treatment . This is the reason that the EPA has enhanced the hierarchical management on hydrofluoric acid and enforced operators to comply with container and package labeling requirements for low-HF concentration products (between 0.1% and 10%). This not only helps to provide citizens sufficient information when selecting a product, but also reaches the objectives of warning and ensuring the safe use of these products. Meanwhile, to ensure that the labeling contents are clear and identifiable, the EPA also set the minimum size for labels of hydrofluoric acid containers and packages. As for high-HF concentration products (above 10%) that are highly hazardous to health, it is a must to apply for an approval accordingly. Plants should receive approval documents for use, approval documents are also required for chemical supply shops to sell hydrofluoric acid solution in order to reduce chemical risk.
To prevent safety and health hazard caused by improper use and abuse of ammonium nitrate and hydrofluoric acid, “Five Yes and Two No” control measure is proposed by the EPA, which includes “Yes to obtaining approval, labeling, recording every transaction, doing monthly declaration, risk prevention and response plans: and No to online transactions and using without approval”. Handling activities such as manufacture, import, sale and storage, from upstream to downstream, should not be performed without approval documents. Moreover, due to chemical and physical properties of ammonium nitrate and hydrofluoric acid, they are designated as “hazardous” concerned chemical substances. If the handling quantity exceeds designated graded handling quantity, the handler should comply with regulations regarding risk prevention and response plans such as to report risk prevention and response plans, to purchase liability insurance, to train emergency responders, to establish mutual aid groups, to keep emergency response, detection and alarm equipment, to submit transport manifests. These regulations are proposed in order to achieve risk management targets of reinforcing the accident response, risk prevention, transportation and safety management.
The EPA adds, in order to obtain real time storage information of ammonium nitrate and to strengthen risk response management, any handler who handles ammonium nitrate should record every transaction online and declare monthly from October 1, 2021. Besides, in regard to abovementioned matters with which operators must comply, existing operators will be given with a prescribed period of time to make related preparations and applications. For detailed information about the deadlines, please refer to the attachment. If a handler starts to handle ammonium nitrate or hydrofluoric acid after the announced date, buffer period does not apply.
For details of the relevant information, please visit the EPA news section to download the file(https://enews.moenv.gov.tw/enews/fact_index.asp), which is also posted on The Executive Yuan Gazette Online ( https://gazette.nat.gov.tw/egFront/index.do) for reference.
