New amendments in Malaysia’s DOSH regarding chemical register submission

The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) in Malaysia is planning to update the instructions on how to create and submit chemical registers. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, manufacturers, suppliers, and users who process, produce, or store hazardous substances at the workplace are required to submit a register to the Director General of DOSH.

The proposed amendments to the Guidelines for the Preparation of a Chemical Register include a requirement that the register be submitted no later than 31 March of the year after their effective date and then each calendar year after that. When enforcement will begin is not known yet, according to the government. Moreover, they make it clear that the following details are necessary: list of chemicals; each chemical's most recent safety data sheet (SDS); average amount processed, generated, or stored per month or year; and chemical's physical state (liquid, gas, or another); the location where it is generated, processed, or stored; chemical hazard categorization; supplier information, and name and address.

The recommendations include a new suggested format in Appendix 1 of the guidelines. This refers to the dissemination of extra information, such as:

Information about the business, the person in charge of creating and approving the register, and a statement from top management that all personnel who could be exposed to hazardous substances would have access to the register.

They should be refreshed consistently, however, no time period was given.

The modifications, which were dependent upon a public discussion from 10 February to 10 March, plan to adjust the rules to the country's Occupational Safety and Health (Classification, Labelling and Safety Data Sheet of Hazardous Chemicals) Regulations, 2013, (CLASS Regulations 2013).

The Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure Chemical Hazardous to Health) (USECHH) Regulations 2000 set compound substance openness norms to guarantee working environment wellbeing under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994).