Introduction
Historical Background
Prior to 1967, there was virtually no control over the production, importation, exportation, sale or handling of toxic substances. The term “toxic substance” means any substance that may cause hazard to human health either directly or indirectly. Examples of toxic chemicals are those used as pesticides, rodenticides, insecticides, household cleaning products, etc. As the consumption of diverse toxic substances is increasing, the intoxication occurrences caused by certain toxic chemicals have become more and more common. Parts of the problems may be due to a lack of adequate information or appropriate instructions on the use of such toxic substances as well as the absence of proper regulatory measures. Other parts are due to individual ignorance or unawareness of the chemical's toxicity. The ever-increasing occurrences alert authorities to take action on these toxic chemicals. Upon suggestions from the groups concerned, the government started working on a law to control the utilization of toxic substances for various purposes. Hence, the “Toxic Substance Act of B.E.2510 (1967)” was promulgated in 1967. Later in 1973, some more measures on registration procedures of toxic substances were added to the amendment of the Act, which was promulgated as the “Toxic Substance Act, 2 nd Amendment, B.E.2516 (1973)”.
Later on, a great number of hazardous substances were used in various industries and businesses. Some of these hazardous substances had evidently caused serious injuries to humans, animals, plants, properties and the environment. Several Ministries, Bureaus and Departments administered the then existing laws. As a consequence, different proclamations were made during different periods of time, resulting in discrepancies and incomprehensiveness of their provisions. So agencies concerned collaborated in the revisions and integration of the then existing laws on toxic substances into one law, i.e. Hazardous-substance Act of B.E.2535 (1992). The new Act has expanded the scope of its application to cover all kinds of hazardous substances. The definition of “Hazardous-substance” in the new law covers more substances than that in the former one. In addition, it has adopted better criteria with more practical procedures and promoted collaboration among agencies concerned on the control and supervision of hazardous substances use.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Hazardous Substances Control Group is responsible for supervising the use of hazardous substances in households and public health programs. According to the Hazardous-substance Act of B.E.2535 (1992), responsible agencies must firstly study and consider which chemicals or substances should be classified as hazardous substances by type of such substances. Then the agencies must propose the decisions to the Committee on Hazardous Substances. If the Committee agrees, the Ministry of Industry will issue a notification.
The Hazardous Substances Committee has appointed three subcommittees to handle the tasks, two of which are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Health:
- Subcommittee on Standards of Hazardous Substances Used in Households and Public Health.
- Subcommittee on Registration of Hazardous Substances Used in Households and Public Health.
- Subcommittee on Standards of Pesticides Control Operations.
The regulatory procedures range from monitoring to control and total prohibition according to the degrees of toxicity and hazard of the substances. In addition, other factors, e.g. environmental impact, abuse, etc., are taken into consideration in classifying them as hazardous substance type 1, 2, 3, or 4 (see detailed in item 7 under the topic Law and Regulations).
