The Toxic Chemical Act in Taiwan vs the REACH Authorisation framework in Europe

In July 2011, following a one-month public consultation, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (Taiwan EPA) published the revised version of the Toxic Chemical Act (TCA). The TCA defines restrictions and related obligations for more than three hundred substances listed in four toxic categories:

	Toxic Cat. 1	Not readily degraded, or are likely to bioaccumulate, bioconcentrate, or biotransform and caused pollution to the environment or harm to human health
	Toxic Cat. 2	Effects of carcinogenesis, infertility, teratogenesis, mutagenesis or other chronic effects
	Toxic Cat. 3	Immediate endanger human or other life when exposed
	Toxic Cat. 4	May pollute the environment or endanger human health

From a comparison between the substances regulated by the Taiwan Toxic Chemical Act (TCA) and the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) included by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in the Candidate List for Authorisation (i.e. in the process for inclusion in REACH Annex XIV), the following emerges. Among the 305 substances listed in the TCA toxic categories:

	109	are considered by the International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec) as fulfilling the criteria for being classified as SVHC under the EU REACH Regulation (SIN List);
	87	are identified as SVHC for potential inclusion in the ECHA Candidate List for Authorisation by the EU Member States' Informal Expert Group;
	43 (+5)	are included (or in the process of inclusion) in the European Candidate List of SVHC for Authorisation;
	17 (+4)	are subject (or in the process of being subject) to Authorisation, REACH Annex XIV.

- Link to the Taiwan Toxic Chemical list

The analysis was performed with the support of MyChemicalMonitoring (Premium).