Press Room

Thursday, May 08, 2008 — The South Korean Ministry of Labor (MOL) has announced that it will extend the deadline for converting to GHS classification and labeling to July 1, 2010 for pure substances and January 1, 2015 for mixtures. Until then, the companies have a grace period during which they may use either their existing classifications, labels, and SDS or the GHS standards.

The previous deadline for converting to GHS classification and labeling was July 1, 2008. The MOL is extending the deadline to give industry time to make the conversion and also to harmonize with international deadlines for conversion to GHS. The extended deadlines are 6 months prior to the deadlines proposed by EU, which are 1 December 2010 for substance and 1 June 2015 for mixtures.

The Draft Amendment to the Industrial Safety and Health Act was published on May 6, 2008, and the final amendment is expected to be the same as the draft. (Source: Korean Official Gazette (Gwanbo), MOL Public Notice 2008-89, May 6, 2008)

If you would like additional information about this deadline extension, or to learn more about how it could impact your compliance efforts, visit http://www.3ecompany.com/EmailPromo/promowp.asp?trkcde=SKM-GHS