On 27 July 2026, South Korea's National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICS), affiliated with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE), promulgated Notice No. 2026-13 partially amending the Regulation on Specific Handling Standards for Hazardous Chemicals. The amendment establishes tailored handling rules for 74 newly designated skin-corrosive hazardous substances and tightens the requirements for carbon monoxide by adding a mandatory pre-handling risk check. The revised standards took effect on 2 August 2026, so facilities handling the covered chemicals must now align their storage, containment, and operating procedures with the new substance-specific obligations.
The Regulation on Specific Handling Standards for Hazardous Chemicals translates the general safety-management duties of the Chemicals Control Act (K-CCA) into concrete, substance-by-substance requirements. Delegated under Annex 1 of the K-CCA Enforcement Rules, it specifies, for each listed hazardous chemical, the storage conditions, handling-facility specifications, segregation rules, personal-protection measures and emergency responses that handlers must follow, each calibrated to the substance's hazard profile. Listing a chemical as hazardous therefore shifts it from a nominal entry on a roster to a status that carries definite, property-matched handling obligations.
Standards for 74 newly designated corrosive substances
The amendment creates specific handling standards for 74 hazardous substances newly designated for their skin-corrosive properties (GHS Hazard Category 1B or 1C), which carry Given Numbers 2026-1-1281 through 2026-1-1354. For these chemicals, it requires measures such as restricting access to authorized personnel, keeping them in closed containers in well-ventilated areas, wearing personal protective equipment during operations that generate dust, fumes, gas, mist, vapor, or spray, segregating incompatible or water-reactive substances, and washing immediately with copious water on skin or eye contact. The first substance in the new batch, for example, is N-methylmethanamine hafnium(4+) salt (4:1) (CAS 19782-68-4), a water-reactive corrosive that must be kept away from water to prevent violent reactions and fire.
Tightened handling for carbon monoxide
The amendment also updates the handling standards for carbon monoxide (Given No. 2023-1-1123; CAS 630-08-0) by adding a mandatory pre-handling risk-verification step. The gas must now be handled only under safe conditions, specifically, after confirming that gas-detection and alarm devices are functional before work begins on activities where exposure is possible, such as the maintenance or repair of handling facilities. Carbon monoxide's existing requirements, which range from keeping it clear of ignition sources to handling it only outdoors or in well-ventilated settings, remain in force.
The amendment had been put out for public consultation from 22 May to 11 June 2026. Following that consultation, NICS finalized the revision as Notice No. 2026-13, promulgated on 27 July 2026 and effective from 2 August 2026. One substance in the batch, sodium hypochlorite (Given No. 2026-1-1354), is not designated as a hazardous chemical until 1 January 2028 under the separate designation notice, so its handling standard applies from that later date. Handlers should confirm how the substance-specific requirements bear on their operations and bring their storage, containment, and operating procedures into line with the binding standards.
