This notification covers all chemical substances that meet the definition of "hazardous substance" in Section 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act 1996, and that currently exceed the thresholds set in the Hazardous Substances (Minimum Degrees of Hazard) Notice 2017. This is equivalent to the coverage of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

Implementation of GHS 7: Implications for hazardous substance approvals and group standards; Consultation Document 2 (48 pages, in English including Appendix 1; Appendices 2-7 are made available on the EPA's website, these include the consultation document and submissions analysis report from the EPA's October 2019 consultation, exposure drafts of the new and amended EPA notices, the proposed group standards, a spreadsheet with proposed GHS classifications and fates of approved substances and a spreadsheet with proposed controls related to substances approved or reassessed before 1 December 2017).

In October 2019 New Zealand notified (G/TBT/N/NZL/92) the EPA's proposal to update the current hazard classification system for hazardous substances to Revision 7 (2017) of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS 7). This would be achieved by issuing a new Hazard Classification Notice and would also require several other EPA notices to be amended, including those which set requirements for labelling, safety data sheets, and packaging of chemical substances.

The EPA's second proposal related to updating the current hazard classification system  to GHS 7 intends to:

·         update existing individual hazardous substance approvals to convert their current HSNO hazard classifications to GHS hazard classifications

·         update group standards to convert their current HSNO hazard classifications to GHS hazard classifications, and also to make some minor changes to a small number of group standards (note group standards are approvals for a group of hazardous substances of a similar nature, type or use)

·         revoke a number of duplicate hazardous substance approvals as their approvals can be managed by one or more group standards

·         update the controls on hazardous substance approvals issued before 1 December 2017 to bring them into line with the reforms introduced with the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 which came into force on that date

·         make available the proposed drafts of the new Hazard Classification Notice and amended Labelling, Safety Data Sheets, Packaging, Disposal, Hazardous Property Controls and Importers and Manufacturers Notices.