1. GHS Regulatory Frontiers in Malaysia

On 24th February 1994, the Federal Gazette of Malaysia published OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT 1994 (Act 514 or OSHA 1994), which is the main legislation that regulates workplace safety and health. Its aim is to further safeguard the safety, health, and welfare of workers and protect others from safety or health risks related to work activities.

On 11th October 2013, the latest GHS regulations were published in the Federal Gazette of Malaysia——Occupational Safety and Health (Classification, Labelling and Safety Data Sheet of Hazardous Chemicals) Regulations 2013 (CLASS Regulations 2013). The predecessor of this regulation was the Occupational Safety and Health (Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Hazardous Chemicals) Regulations 1997 (CPL Regulations). According to Article 37 of OSHA 1994, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) issued a guideline document for Class Regulation 2013 on April 16, 2014——Industry Code of Practice on Chemical Classification and Hazard Communication 2014.. CLASS Regulations 2013 was developed based on the UN GHS Rev. 3, with significant changes to the classification adopted compared to CPL 1997. To ensure all related bodies having a sufficient time to comply with CLASS Regulations 2013, a thorough preparation period of one year is given starting from the date ICOP CHC 2014 was gazette. It means the CLASS Regulations 2013 implemented on 17th April 2014, and was mandatory on 17th April 2015. It should be noted that during the transition period, it is still necessary to comply with OSHA 1994.

ICOP CHC 2014 consists of 4 main parts, which are:

List of Classified Chemicals (229 substances);
Chemicals Classification;
Hazard Communication: Labelling and Safety Data Sheet (SDS)；
Confidential Business Information (CBI).

On October 11, 2019, DOSH published the revised document for the first part of the 2013 Class Regulation - Industry Code of Practice on Chemical Classification and Hazard Communication (Amendment) 2019. There are now 662 substances listed in the chemical classification list.

2. GHS Classification Adopted by Malaysia

The detailed classification information in Malaysia is as follows:

Physical hazards:

Hazard class		Hazard category
1	Explosives	Unstable explosives	Div 1.1	Div 1.2	Div 1.3	Div 1.4	Div 1.5	Div 1.6
2	Flammable gases	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
3	Flammable aerosols	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
4	Flammable liquids	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3
5	Flammable solids	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
6	Oxidizing gases	Cat. 1
7	Oxidizing liquids	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3
8	Oxidizing solids	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3
9	Gases under pressure	Compressed gas	Liquefied gas		Refrigerated liquefied gas		Dissolved gas
10	Self-reactive chemicals	Type A	Type B	Type C	Type D	Type E	Type F	Type G
11	Pyrophoric liquids	Cat. 1
12	Pyrophoric solids	Cat. 1
13	Self-heating chemicals	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
14	Chemicals which, in contact with water, emit flammables gases	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3
15	Organic peroxides	Type A	Type B	Type C	Type D	Type E	Type F	Type G
16	Corrosive to metals	Cat. 1

Health hazards:

Hazard class		Hazard category
1	Acute toxicity (oral)	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3	Cat. 4
2	Acute toxicity (dermal)	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3	Cat. 4
3	Acute toxicity (inhalation)	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3	Cat. 4
4	Skin corrosion or irritation	Cat. 1/1A/1B/1C	Cat. 2
5	Serious eye damage or eye irritation	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
6	Respiratory sensitization	Cat. 1
7	Skin sensitization	Cat. 1
8	Germ cell mutagenicity	Cat. 1A/1B	Cat. 2
9	Carcinogenicity	Cat. 1A/1B	Cat. 2
10	Reproductive toxicity	Cat. 1A/1B	Cat. 2	Effects on or via lactation
11	Specific target organ toxicity- single exposure	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3
12	Specific target organ toxicity-repeated exposure	Cat. 1	Cat. 2
13	Aspiration hazard	Cat. 1

Environmental hazards:

Hazard class		Hazard category
1	Hazardous to the aquatic environment–acute hazard	Cat. 1
2	Hazardous to the aquatic environment–chronic hazard	Cat. 1	Cat. 2	Cat. 3	Cat. 4
3	Hazardous to the ozone layer	Cat. 1

3. SDS Requirements in Malaysia

Suppliers shall furnish an up-to-date SDS to a chemical recipient for each hazardous chemical supplied, and even chemicals that are not classified as hazardous but meet the concentrations specified in the table below, SDS documents should also be provided. Same as the labeling requirements, the SDS shall be written both in national language and English language.

Hazard Class	Cut-off Values
Acute toxicity	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Skin corrosion or irritation	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Serious eye damage or eye irritation	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Respiratory sensitization	at 0.1% or more (≥ 0.1%)
Skin sensitization	at 0.1% or more (≥ 0.1%)
Germ cell mutagenicity (category 1)	at 0.1% or more (≥ 0.1%)
Germ cell mutagenicity (category 2)	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Carcinogenicity	at 0.1% or more (≥ 0.1%)
Reproductive toxicity	at 0.1% or more (≥ 0.1%)
Specific target organ toxicity – single exposure	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Specific target organ toxicity – repeated exposure	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)
Aspiration hazard	at 10% or more (≥ 10%)
Hazardous to the aquatic environment	at 1.0% or more (≥ 1.0%)

Cut-off values for each health and environmental hazard class

The SDS shall be presented using the following headings in the order given below:

Section 1: Identification of the hazardous chemical and of the supplier;
Section 2: Hazard identification;
Section 3: Composition and information of the ingredients of the hazardous chemical;
Section 4: First-aid measures;
Section 5: Fire-fighting measures;
Section 6: Accidental release measures;
Section 7: Handling and storage;
Section 8: Exposure controls and personal protection;
Section 9: Physical and chemical properties;
Section 10: Stability and reactivity;
Section 11: Toxicological information;
Section 12: Ecological information;
Section 13: Disposal information;
Section 14: Transportation information;
Section 15: Regulatory information;
Section 16: Other information.

It should be noted that, hazard pictograms on the SDS: At least 1 cm x 1cm and less than 2 cm x 2 cm. If the hazardous chemical is additionally a scheduled poison, the first aid advice shall be consistent with that required by the National Poison Centre in Section 4: First-aid measures. In Section 8 Exposure controls and personal protection, where there is no Malaysian Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) as stipulated under the Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standards of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000, internationally recognized exposure standards or exposure standard from other countries shall be used, if available. Examples of international standards or limits include those of the Health and Safety Executive (Health and Safety Executive (HSE)) in the United Kingdom, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists American Conference of (Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH)) or Maximum workplace concentration in Germany (Maximale Arbeitsplatzkonzentrationen (German MAK)). Where a chemical is classified as a carcinogen, recommendations on substitution or isolation of the chemical from the workplace shall be included in this section of the SDS.

In addition, ICOP CHC 2014 section 4 introduces the precautions regarding Confidential Business Information (CBI) component information. CBI claims shall be limited to the chemical names and their concentrations in mixtures, other information should be provided in accordance with regulatory requirements. CBI information shall be disclosed to the DOSH Director upon request. A generic name may be used to describe a hazardous ingredient if the identity of the ingredient is commercially confidential. The generic name are named according to the chemical functional groups or elements that affect their chemical properties. ICOP CHC 2014 section 4.3.2 provides a list of 120 recommended generic names. Regarding the CBI concentration, the following concentration range or narrower range is allowed to describe the concentration of components.

<1%

1 to <3%

3 to <5%

5 to <10%

10 to <30%

30 to 60%

>60%

Allowable concentration range for ingredients claimed as CBI

4. GHS Safety Labels Requirements in Malaysia

According to the requirements of Part IV of the Class Regulation 2013, GHS safety labels and indelibly containing the following information:

(a) Product identifier (shall match with in the SDS);
(b) Supplier identification;
(c) Signal word;
(d) Hazard statement (Container or package ≤125 mL can be omitted);
(e) Hazard pictogram, the size is one fifteenth of the surface area of the label but the minimum area is not less than 100 mm2 (10 mm x 10 mm), if the hazard pictogram GHS01 shall be used and the use of the hazards pictograms GHS02 and GHS03 shall be optional (excluding self reactive chemical type B and organic peroxide type B);
(f) Precautionary statement (Container or package ≤125 mL can be omitted);
(g) Statement which reads: “read Safety Data Sheet before use” (Applicable for container or package ≤125 mL, regular packaging can be omitted from writing);
(h) Local emergency telephone number (24 hours) in Malaysia (including area code). If the hazardous chemical is imported, the foreign manufacturer’s contact number (24 hours) may be included for advice during an emergency;
(i) Letter and numeral are to be in print and the font size shall not be smaller than 7 points, the letters and numerals shall be black in colour;
(j) Use the national language and English language.

If the substance is included in the list of classified chemical in ICOP CHC 2014 section 1, the name on the list should be given priority for identification. The product identifier for a mixture shall be the trade name of the designation of the mixture. The difference from SDS is that not more than 6 precautionary statements shall appear on the label, unless necessary to reflect the nature and the severity of the hazards. Redundant information may be omitted. Where a hazard classification results in duplicate precautionary statements, the information shall only appear once.

Example of General Labels

Example of label for small packaging (≤125mL)

With the update and modification of the UN GHS regulation, Malaysia's classification lacks desensitized explosives, inhalation hazard category 2, flammable gases (chemically unstable gases A/B, ignition gases), etc. In order to comply with the latest UN GHS requirements, on 13th June 2022, DOSH issued a proposal to revise the Class Regulation 2013 and has completed soliciting public opinion (as of 15th August 2022).

Proposed amendments to CLASS Regulations 2013:

1) SDS
Updated SDS to be supplied within 6 months of update, with the same requirement for labeling. Previously is as soon as practicable without specifying a time limit.

2) Label
Requirements for containers of 125 ml in size extended to 250 mL;
Changes in hazard classification to be update in labels in 6 months. Compared to the original 3-month requirement, the deadline has been extended by twice the time;

Requirements for label dimensions based on surface area. And as a result, the detailed label size table in Annex 4 of the regulation has been refined (See table below).

Content of the Packaging	Dimension of Labels (in millimetres)
Not exceeding 3 litres	If practicable, at least 52 x 74
Greater than 3 litres but not exceeding 50 litres	At least 74 x 105
Greater than 50 litres but not exceeding 500 litres	At least 105 x 148
Greater than 500 litres	At least 148 x 210

Dimension of label (now)

Content of the Packaging	Size of label (in mm²)	Pictogram dimensions
Not exceeding 3 litres	If practicable, at least 3850 mm²	At least 10 mm x 10 mm
Greater than 3 litre sbut not exceeding 50 litres	At least 7770 mm²	At least 23 mm x 23 mm
Greater than 50 litres but not exceeding 500 litres	At least 15540 mm²	At least 32 mm x 32 mm
Greater than 500 litres	At least 31080 mm²	At least 46 mm x 46 mm

Dimension of label (amendment)

3) Classifications
Addition of two hazard classes: Chemicals under pressure (Category 1-3) and Desensitized explosives (Category 1-4);
Updating hazard categories for Flammable gases;
Flammable aerosols change to aerosols, adding Aerosols Category 3;
Adding Skin corrosion or irritation Category 3;
Dividing Serious eye damage or eye irritation Category 2 into 2A and 2B;
Updating Respiratory sensitization / skin sensitization Category 1 to 1A and 1B;
Update of cut-off value for Aspiration hazard from >=10% to >=1%.

This proposal aims to alignment with UN GHS Rev. 8. Malaysia will soon release a new version of GHS regulatory documents.

Appendix

Neso Zhao

ChemRadar Regulatory Analyst