China: Guidelines for key chemical substances in consumer products

On November 19th, 2020, the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) published the Guidelines for the Use and Control of Key Chemical Substances in Consumer Products (GB/T 39498-2020), with its effective date on June 1st, 2021.

The Guidelines provide principles and recommendations for the use and control of key chemical substances in consumer products, including product components, parts, accessories, packaging and instructions for use. Products which are subject to special regulation such as FCM, Medicine, Cosmetics, tobacco, military products are not included in its scope. The competent authorities to implement this Guidelines are National Standardization Management Committee.

A total of 117 chemicals have been identified and listed along with recommendations on controlling their use and scope i.e mostly the limits set on their content and release and migration limits.

The background for preparation of these Guidelines was recall notification of the EU and US for consumer products from China showed that more than half of the product recalls were due to the presence of hazardous chemicals. The main reason was the lack of national standards regarding the restriction of chemical safety hazards in China. So, in 2013 the China National Institute of Standardization in association with academia and industries started the process of drafting the “Restriction Requirements for chemical hazards in Consumer products”

1. In 2014, the drafting group prepared and completed the initial draft standards
2. In 2017, it was open for public consultation
3. In 2020, the “Guidelines for the control of the use of key chemical substances in consumer products” was officially released.

GPC encourages companies to actively review the restricted substances list and related requirements for smoother exports.

Update: 2021-02-23