LEGAL ISSUES ON CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OVER CHEMICALS AND STRATEGIC COUNTERMEASURES

Abstract

Chemicals, due to their combustible, explosive, toxic characteristics and aptness to jeopardize the environment, human health and public safety, have long been on the top agenda of the governments throughout the world. At present China is a large country in the production, consumption and trading of chemicals with 45, 000 kinds already manufactured and in use and some 100 new kinds per year awaiting being registered to enter into the markets.1 Generally, the chemicals management in China has undergone through labor protection between 1950s and 1960s, pollution control and public safety during 1970s and 1980s, and ozone protection, climate change, recycling economy and anti-terrorism in recent decades. The focus of the legislation on chemicals has shifted from separate and scattered regulations in the form of departmental rules to national regulations which give special attention to the coordination of concerned departments and to the linkup and compatibility with relevant international treaties. In a word, chemicals management has become one of the sectors in China’s environmental management domains where there are a large number of stringent regulations.