Products controlled under other laws, consumer products, chemicals, or products for R&D purpose including reagents are exempted from MSDS submission. Below are newly added in the amendment as products controlled under other laws. Please be aware that there must be more other exempted products controlled under other laws, not listed below, so consultation is needed to confirm it.
-    Dietary supplements under 「Health Functional Foods Act」
 -  Raw material substances under 「Act on Safety Control of Radioactive Rays around Living Environment」
-    Household chemical products for general consumers among household chemical products subject to safety confirmation and biocidal products under 「Act on Safety Control of Household Chemical Products and Biocidal Products」
-    Hygiene products under 「Hygiene Products Control Act」
-   Advanced biomedicines under 「Act on Safety and Support of Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Biomedicine」

Scope of chemicals or products used for Research and Development (R&D) is as follows:
-    Chemicals or products for scientific experiments, analysis, or research, such as reagents;
-    Chemicals or products for the development of other chemicals or products, etc.;
-    Chemicals or products for improvement and development of production processes;
-    Chemicals or products for testing application fields of chemicals in workplaces;
-   Chemicals or products for pilot manufacturing of chemicals or pilot production of chemical      products, etc.

For any failure to submit MSDS, an administrative penalty of less than 5 million KRW (5,000 USD) shall be imposed per product.

3. Approval of SDS trade secrets

If a substance is subject to trade secret, an application for approval of MSDS trade secrets should be submitted. After its approval, the submission of MSDS with this approval number can be done. The below tables show how to apply for MSDS trade secrets.

■  Application for approval of MSDS trade secrets

■  Preparation of trade secret data
- How to fill in alternative content
  ① If the original content of a non-disclosure ingredient is less than 25%
  : Write in the range of ±10%
  ② If the original content of a non-disclosure ingredient is 25% and above
  : Write in the range of ±20%

- How to fill in alternative names
Follow the preparation method of nomenclature of generic names proposed by the Ministry of Environment (MOE Notification No. 2018-237 Appendix Nomenclature of generic names under Regulations on the preparation method of an application for data protection and management method of protected data, etc.). 

4. Person appointed by overseas manufacturers (Only Representative) 

In the case of exported chemicals into Korea, an overseas manufacturer may appoint a representative, on behalf of a domestic importer, to prepare and submit information and data necessary for MSDS application, non-disclosure approval, etc.

Scope of OR work is preparation and submission of MSDS, approval for MSDS trade secret, approval for the extension of validity, the appeal of rejected application, and delivery of approved MSDS to importers.

5. Changes in GHS classification and its naming

The amended KOSHA includes certain changes in GHS classification and warning signals. The purpose of these changes is to follow the UN GHS standard. For instance, sub-categories (1A, 1B, 1C) is newly added to skin corrosion/ skin irritation. This sub-categorization can be applied when the data to support this sub-categorization exists. And, if it is difficult to classify a CMR substance into 1A or 1B, it is possible to classify a substance to category 1. Detailed changes in GHS cut-off value and warning signal are summarized below:

■  Changes in GHS cut-off value

* Note: For any substances having classification and being contained in the product higher than the cut-off limit, it is essential to include those substances in MSDS. 

■  Changes in the entries of warning signal

When any chemical is subject to UN 「Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (RTDG)」, the pictogram of RTDG may be indicated on the relevant container on behalf of 「Globally Harmonized System (GHS)」. And, it is not allowed to use both RTDG and GHS’s pictograms at the same time. Instead, one pictogram should be indicated and it is recommended to use pictograms from GHS.