South Korea Sets Handling Limits for 73 Newly Designated Hazardous Substances

On 6 May 2026 Korea's National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICS) issued Notice No. 2026-4, partially revising the Regulation on Prescribed Quantities of Hazardous Chemical Substances. The revision writes 73 substances newly added to the hazardous-chemicals roster into the regulation's quantity table, assigning each the handling thresholds that decide whether a site must hold a business permit, file a declaration or operate under a chemical-accident-prevention plan. The notice took effect on the day it was issued, so the new thresholds already apply.

73 acute-toxic substances brought into the quantity system

All 73 substances are classed for human acute toxicity; a few also carry a "low-dispersion" note that sets an alternative quantity when they are handled in liquid or solid form. They are industrial intermediates and processing aids rather than consumer chemicals — alkyl amines and polyethylenepolyamines used as epoxy and polymer curing agents, alkylbenzenesulfonic and phosphonic acids that feed the surfactant and specialty-chemicals trade, organometallics such as aluminoxanes and hafnium or titanium salts, and reactive reagents such as ethylmagnesium chloride. Until this notice each new entrant had no individual quantity of its own; operators now have a fixed figure to measure against instead of case-by-case guidance.

The eight substances above are illustrative; the full list runs to 73 entries (unique numbers 2026-1-1281 to 2026-1-1353 in Appendix 2 of the regulation).

Three quantity tiers, set substance by substance

For each substance the regulation fixes three thresholds — an upper, a lower and a lowest prescribed quantity — together with a concentration cut-off. A substance is counted towards a site's total only when it is present in a preparation at or above that concentration, which is 10% for every one of the new entries. The thresholds are scaled to acute toxicity. Fifty-eight of the 73 substances carry the standard acute-toxicity values: a lowest quantity of 0.4 tonnes, a lower quantity of 40 tonnes and an upper quantity of 500 tonnes. The remainder carry tighter limits — five substances at 0.125 / 5 / 200 tonnes, a further five at intermediate values, one at 0.05 / 2 / 50 tonnes, and four with the state-dependent low-dispersion quantity.

What the quantities trigger under the Chemicals Control Act

Under the Chemicals Control Act, a handling site compares the maximum amount of each substance that could be present on site at any one moment — the "maximum holding amount", summed across all manufacturing, use, storage and keeping facilities — with the three prescribed quantities. Reaching the upper quantity places the business in the permit category; reaching the lower quantity places it in the declaration category; substances held below the lowest quantity sit outside these handling-business obligations. The same thresholds also set the level of a site's chemical-accident-prevention-and-management-plan and the installation standards that apply to its handling facilities.

What companies should do

Because the notice is already in force, companies should act promptly. Manufacturers, importers and users should screen their inventories against the 73 entries in Appendix 2, confirm which set of quantities applies to each substance they handle, and add up the maximum holding amount across every handling and storage facility on each site. Sites whose totals now reach a permit or declaration threshold should file the corresponding application, and operators whose prevention-plan tier has moved up should bring their plans into line. Businesses already holding a permit or declaration for adjacent substances should widen their programmes to cover the new entries.

Further information

Gov.