On March 8, 2021, the South Korean Ministry of Environment issued the Announcement 2021-139, a draft amendment to the “MoE Notification 2020-117 Designation of Consumer Chemical Products Subject to Safety Verification and Safety and Label Standards”. The biocide part represents the largest changes, namely the abolishment of air-use disinfectants, the establishment of microbial contamination limits and clarification on eligible main substances and limits, as well as the mandatory efficacy test data required for products with biocidal substance claim. A new product category, lubricants will be newly designated as consumer chemical products based on the actual condition investigation and risk assessment. As a result of the respiratory toxicity data recently produced in Korea, Benzalkonium Chloride and Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate will be added to the list of universally prohibited substances in spray-type products.

On February 23, 2021, South Korea announced an amendment to the “List of internationally evaluated biocidal active substances”, a series of substances to be approved through a simplified process with exempted data requirements. Compare to the substances disclosed in September 2020, the total number of active substances increased from 115 to 130 and 24 substances have been excluded due to the absence of evaluation report issued by the US or EU authorities or voluntarily withdrawn/absence of application plan for substance approval.

On December 31, 2020, the Chinese National Health Commission（NHC） issue an announcement regarding the hygiene and safety evaluation of low-temperature use disinfectants, aimed to address the continuous covid-19 contamination detected in cold-chain items and scattered cases reported as temperatures decrease. The low-temperature use disinfectants are now specified with definite efficacy and stability test conditions distinct from normal use disinfectants.

On November 11, 2020, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the State Standardization Administration jointly issue the national standard,” GB38598-2020 General Requirement for Label and Instruction Book of Disinfection Products”, which will be mandatorily implemented starting from December 1, 2021.

Disinfection products refer to a sort of disease-preventing products that eliminate pathogenic microorganisms and block the transmission through chemical, physical and biological methods. The Chinese “Measures for the Control of Disinfection” classifies disinfection products into disinfectant, disinfecting apparatus and sanitary products.

On August 24, the Korean Ministry of Environment issued the Notification 2020-182 to amend the list of existing biocidal substances subject to deferred approval. South Korea enacted the “Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides(K-BPR)” in 2018, requiring manufacturers and importers of biocidal substance to obtain a substance approval from the Ministry. Biocidal substances used in biocidal products or treated articles placed in Korea before December 31, 2018, are allowed to be designated as “existing biocidal substances subject to deferred approval” and manufactured or imported without obtaining the approval within their grace period if their producers and manufacturers fulfilled reporting and submission obligations: Notify MoE the basic information on the substance before June 30, 2019, including name, trade name and use type, etc.; Submit to the MoE the plan for the application of substance approval within 1 year after the substance being designated as the existing substance. For substance manufactured or imported by multiple companies, the plan shall be submitted separately and one of the companies can be selected as the representative of data submitter for the joint submission. The data can also be used by other applicants not yet participate in the joint submission through MoE’s data compensation system. If the manufacturer or importer failed to submit the plan or application for substance approval, the notified substance will be deemed as difficult to submit the data within the grace period and manufacturer or importer will be prohibited from business activities. If all manufacturers and importers of the substance were prohibited, the designation of the substance will be canceled. On December 31, 2019, MoE issued the Notification 2019-249 and a total of 741 substances were designated as the existing substances. The chemical name, CAS number, use type, grace period, and notifying co

On August 4, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission released the final notice regarding the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, which was consulted early on June 19. Apart from the aims of resuming normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China and intensifying the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market, the emergently placed disinfectants will have a longer transitional period to complete the normal record-filing procedures until December 31, 2020.