SG 047/26
Australia opens consultation on its proposed listing of 14 industrial chemicals to the IChEMS Register.
On March 23, 2026, Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) opened a one-month consultation on its proposed listing of 14 classes of industrials chemicals to the nation’s Industrial Chemicals Environment Management (Register) Instrument 2022 (IChEMS Register, Compilation No. 4, June 2025).
The IChEMS Register assigns chemicals to one of seven schedules based on their risk characteristics, as set out in the IChEMS Principles.
What does this proposal require and when does it apply?
Key provisions in the consultation include:
- Listing glycerides in Schedule 2 to the IChEMS Register, a category for chemicals considered unlikely to pose environmental harm (effective January 1, 2027)
- Adding fatty acids to Schedule 3, a category for chemicals with some potential to cause environmental harm (January 1, 2027)
- Classifying two chemicals as Schedule 4, a category for chemicals that may cause harm to the environment:
- Limonene (January 1, 2027)
- PFBA, PFPeA, PFHxA, their salts and related compounds (July 1, 2027)
- Assigning seven chemicals to Schedule 5, a category for chemicals likely to cause environmental harm:
- 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonamides (July 1, 2027)
- BHA and related antioxidants (January 1, 2027)
- BHT (January 1, 2027)
- PFBS, its salts and related compounds (July 1, 2027)
- PFHpA, its salts and related compounds (July 1, 2027)
- PFPeS, its salts and related compounds (January 1, 2027)
- TBBPA (January 1, 2027)
- Designating three chemicals to Schedule 7, a category for industrial chemicals likely to cause serious and irreversible environmental harm and for which no essential uses are identified (see Table 1)
Who is impacted?
Schedule 7 substances would affect stakeholders across multiple industries and supply chains, including manufacturers, users, importers and exporters of these harmful chemicals, as well as mixtures and articles that contain them.
Key highlights of the three proposed Schedule 7 chemicals and their applications are summarized in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
| Schedule 7 Substance | Scope | Requirement | Proposed effective date |
|---|---|---|---|
| PFHpS, its salts and PFHpS-related compounds |
| Prohibited (manufacture, import, export, use) | January 1, 2027 |
| ≤ 0.025 mg/kg for PFHpS and its salts as unintentional trace contamination (UTC) (manufacture) ≤ 1 mg/kg for PFHpS-related compounds as UTC (manufacture) | ||
| ≤ 0.025 mg/kg for PFHpS and its salts as unintentional trace contamination (UTC) (manufacture) ≤ 1 mg/kg for PFHpS-related compounds as UTC (manufacture) | ||
| PFNS, PFDS, their salts and related compounds |
| Prohibited (manufacture, import, export and use) | January 1, 2027 |
| ≤ 0.025 mg/kg for PFNS, FPDS and their salts as UTC (manufacture) ≤ 1 mg/kg individually and sum for PFNS, FPDS and their salts as UTC (manufacture) | ||
| ≤ 0.025 mg/kg for PFNS, FPDS and their salts as UTC (import, export and use) ≤ 1 mg/kg individually and sum for PFNS, FPDS and their salts as UTC (import, export and use) | ||
| TTBP and its sodium salt |
| Prohibited (manufacture, import, export and use) | July 1, 2027 |
| ≤ 100 mg/kg as UTC (manufacture | ||
| ≤ 100 mg/kg as UTC (import, export and use) |
Table 1
| Substance | Application |
|---|---|
| PFHpS, its salts and PFHpS-related compounds |
|
| PFNS, PFDS, their salts and related compounds |
|
| TTBP and its sodium salt |
|
Table 2
Comments will be accepted until April 24, 2026.
Abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Chemical name |
|---|---|
| BHA | Butylated hydroxyanisole |
| BHT | Butylated hydroxytoluene |
| PFBA | Perfluorobutanoic acid |
| PFBS | Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid |
| PFDS | Perfluorodecanesulfonic acid |
| PFPeA | Perfluoropentanoic acid |
| PFHpA | Perfluoroheptanic acid |
| PFHpS | Perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid |
| PFHxA | Perfluorohexanoic acid |
| PFNS | Perfluorononanesulfonic acid |
| PFPeS | Perfluoropentanesulfonic acid |
| TBBPA | Tetrabromobisphenol A |
| TTBP | 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenol |
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