South Korea provides a guide to implement biocide management system for manufacturers and importers of consumer chemical products subject to safety verification

The Ministry of Environment (MoE) in South Korea provides a guide to implement biocide management system for manufacturers and importers of consumer chemical products subject to safety verification. Under the Consumer Chemical Products and Biocides Safety Control Act (K-BPR), manufacturers and importers of biocidal substances and biocidal products must get approval from the MoE (The National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER)).

Scope of the biocidal products are as following:

• 10 biocidal product types: sterilizers, algicides, antibacterial disinfectants for cleaning humidifiers, disinfectants to prevent infectious disease, repellents, insecticides for public health, repellents for public health, insecticides to prevent infectious disease, rodenticides to prevent infectious disease, and wood preservatives
• Products whose main purpose is a biocidal function

Deadlines are as following:

• Biocidal products (except for wood preservatives)

-Biocidal products containing biocidal substances approved within 2022: 2024.12.31

-Biocidal products containing biocidal substances not approved within 2022: 2023.12.31

• Wood preservatives

-Biocidal products containing biocidal substances approved within 2024: 2026.12.31

-Biocidal products containing biocidal substances not approved within 2024: 2025.12.31

Approval of biocidal substances can take more than 1 year and 9 months for evaluation (excluding data revision and supplementation period), and approval of biocidal products can take more than 1 year and 3 months for evaluation (excluding data revision and supplementation period).

As it takes so long time for the evaluation, it should be taken into consideration to get approval within the deadline. In case of non-approval, manufacturing, import, sale, and distribution after the above deadline are prohibited.