The Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law of the People's Republic of China officially took effect on May 1, 2026. The Law was enacted to safeguard people's lives and property and to address prominent issues concerning hazardous chemicals, with the aim of strengthening safety management across the entire chain and at every stage of hazardous chemicals. For the first time, the Safety Law establishes that the State implements a catalog management system for hazardous chemicals; it adds provisions on "preventing and resolving major safety risks at source"; elevates the "three-manage, three-must" principle in the hazardous chemicals sector (those in charge of an industry, a business, or production and operations must also be in charge of safety) into a legal requirement; and builds a mechanism of "entity responsibility, employee participation, government supervision, industry self-discipline, and public oversight," among other measures.
The Safety Law generally steps up penalties, placing greater emphasis on the dual-penalty system (penalizing both the offending entity and the responsible individuals) and on sanctions against the directly responsible persons in charge and other directly responsible personnel. Against the backdrop of the new Law, enterprises engaged in the production, import, and export of hazardous chemicals must promptly implement compliance measures to safeguard life and the environment and avoid penalties.
The following introduces the six major red lines of hazardous chemicals compliance that enterprises are particularly concerned about.
One SDS and One Label
Article 31 of the Safety Law provides that production and import enterprises of hazardous chemicals must provide SDS and labels consistent with their products. The compilation of SDS and labels must follow the requirements of the GB 30000 series (Specifications for Hazard Classification and Labelling of Chemicals), GB 15258 (General Rules for Preparation of Precautionary Labels for Hazardous Chemicals), GB/T 17519 (Guidance on the Compilation of Safety Data Sheets for Chemical Products), and GB/T 16483 (Safety Data Sheet for Chemical Products—Content and Order of Sections). The minimum classification of hazardous chemicals shall refer to the China Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals (2026 Edition).
Query portal for the China Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals (2026 Edition): https://hgt.cirs-group.com/tools/cis/inv/62aaaae4bc9325535f815f2e
Hazardous Chemicals Intelligent Identification Assistant: https://hgt.cirs-group.com/apps/haz-check/haz-check/input
Hazardous Chemicals Registration
Compared with the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals, the Safety Law sets out a dedicated Chapter 7 elaborating the requirements for hazardous chemicals registration, underscoring the critical importance of such registration. The subjects of hazardous chemicals registration are domestic production enterprises and import enterprises. All chemicals listed in the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals, as well as those meeting the identification principles, must complete registration in accordance with the law.
The content of hazardous chemicals registration includes: classification and label information; physical and chemical properties; main uses; hazardous characteristics; safety requirements for storage, use, and transportation; emergency response numbers for chemical accidents; and emergency disposal measures for hazardous situations.
Three Permits
Article 30 of the Safety Law requires that hazardous chemicals production enterprises obtain a Safety Production License in accordance with the law before commencing production; Article 48 stipulates that chemical enterprises that use hazardous chemicals and meet the corresponding requirements must obtain a Safe Use License in accordance with the law; and Article 53 provides that the State implements an operation licensing system for the business of hazardous chemicals.
Import and Export Statutory Inspection
The Safety Law strengthens the responsibilities of Customs. Customs is officially included among the joint departments formulating the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals, working together with the emergency management, public security, ecology and environment, and transportation authorities to determine and adjust the Catalog. Article 7, Item (9) clarifies that Customs is responsible for inspecting import and export hazardous chemicals and their packaging in accordance with the law. When engaging in import and export activities, relevant enterprises must make truthful declarations in accordance with the law and cooperate with Customs in product inspection and packaging inspection.
Storage of Hazardous Chemicals
Article 41 of the Safety Law provides that hazardous chemicals shall be stored in dedicated warehouses, dedicated sites, or dedicated storage rooms or storage cabinets, and shall be placed under the management of designated personnel. The storage of hazardous chemicals must comply not only with the provisions of GB 15603-2022 (General Rules for Storage of Hazardous Chemicals in Warehouses) but also with the fire protection requirements of GB 50016-2014 (Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings) (2018 Edition).
Transport of Dangerous Goods
Chapter 6 of the Safety Law, on transport safety, sets out the requirements for transporting dangerous goods by road, waterway, and other means. Where hazardous chemicals transported by an enterprise are identified as dangerous goods, the provisions on the transport of dangerous goods must be strictly observed. For export hazardous chemicals that qualify as dangerous goods, performance inspection and use appraisal shall be carried out in accordance with the regulations and standards on the inspection of packaging of export dangerous goods for sea, air, road, and rail transport, and the Result Sheet for Performance Inspection of Transport Packaging of Outbound Goods and the Result Sheet for Use Appraisal of Transport Packaging of Outbound Dangerous Goods shall be issued accordingly.
The Safety Law has now been in effect for over two months, marking the formal entry of hazardous chemicals management into an era of "full-chain oversight, strict regulation, and heavy penalties." Safety is a red line, and leaving safety to chance is itself a risk. Enterprises should abandon a wait-and-see attitude, immediately launch a systematic self-inspection against the six major red lines, and integrate compliance into their daily management systems.
