The amendments strengthen SDS accountability and give businesses until 2029 to complete major classification, labeling and document updates.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, 28 August 2026, - Taiwan has amended its hazardous chemical requirements to align them with Revision 8 of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), strengthening safety data sheet controls while providing a transition period for major compliance changes.
The Ministry of Labor published the amendments to the Regulations for the Labeling and Hazard Communication of Hazardous Chemicals on 26 August 2026. The changes also reflect revisions to Taiwan’s CNS 15030 national standards.
New concentration thresholds, disclosure restrictions and safety data sheet (SDS) enforcement provisions took effect on the publication date. Revised hazard classifications, label elements and the SDS format will apply from 1 January 2029.
Lower thresholds take effect
Taiwan lowered the concentration threshold for respiratory or skin sensitizers from 1% to 0.1%. It also established a 1% threshold for Category 1 aspiration hazards.
The lower sensitizer threshold could bring additional mixtures within SDS requirements, including products that contain sensitizing ingredients at concentrations previously below the applicable threshold.
The amendment also bars companies from filing new applications to withhold SDS information for Category 1 aspiration hazards but remains silent on the status of existing approvals.
Authorities gain an SDS correction mechanism
New Article 15-1 authorizes the competent authority or a labor inspection body to order manufacturers, importers or suppliers to correct obvious errors, omissions or comparable deficiencies in an SDS within a specified period. Failure to make the correction may lead to penalties and publication of information about the violation.
Suppliers already had to maintain accurate SDSs, update them when circumstances warranted and review their contents at least once every three years. The amendment preserves those duties while giving authorities a direct mechanism to compel corrections and act when a supplier misses the deadline.
Taiwan considered creating a central platform for businesses to upload SDSs but retained supplier responsibility for keeping product information accurate and current. The ministry cited differences in chemical compositions and hazard characteristics across products.
Classification and labeling changes follow in 2029
The revised framework adds desensitized explosives as a hazard class, divides Category 1 flammable gases into Categories 1A and 1B, expands aerosols to include a third category and introduces classifications for chemicals under pressure.
Taiwan also removes Acute Toxicity Category 5, Skin Corrosion or Irritation Category 3 and Aspiration Hazard Category 2 from its domestic classification and labeling framework.
The official documents leave the use of those removed categories as supplemental hazard information unaddressed. Their removal from Taiwan’s framework therefore establishes a regulatory change without necessarily prohibiting companies from communicating the underlying hazards through other permitted information.
The added and restructured categories may change how businesses classify affected products. A revised classification may also require corresponding changes to container labels and SDSs, including their pictograms, signal words and hazard statements.
SDS structure remains, but individual fields change
The revised SDS format retains the established 16-section structure while changing several fields.
The mixture-composition section will remove the field for “chemical properties.” The physical and chemical properties section will replace odor threshold and evaporation rate with kinematic viscosity and particle characteristics. The transport section will add bulk cargo transport information, while the final section will remove the SDS preparer field.
These classification, labeling and SDS-format changes will apply from 1 January 2029.
The Ministry of Labor initially planned to introduce them on 1 January 2028. It moved the date to 2029 after businesses requested more time to revise SDSs, update container labels and communicate the changes through their supply chains.
Existing scope and workplace protections largely continue
The amendment clarifies an existing exemption by replacing the general reference to “medicines” with separate references to pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Existing exclusions for food, beverages, cosmetics, manufactured articles and general consumer products for non-industrial use remain.
Taiwan also retains its broader GHS-based hazard communication system, the 16-section SDS structure and most existing health-hazard concentration thresholds.
The amendment removes a transitional provision that required a trained person to verify labels and SDSs before hazardous chemicals arriving by vehicle entered unloading, handling or use at a workplace. The ministry concluded that transport and workplace hazard classifications now align and that other occupational safety and training rules already govern these activities.
Those rules continue to govern safe unloading, worker training and chemical handling.
Businesses face two compliance tracks
The amendments begin Taiwan’s alignment with GHS Revision 8 immediately while allowing additional time for changes that require extensive product and document updates. The immediate impact falls on mixtures that contain respiratory or skin sensitizers at concentrations between 0.1% and 1%, new confidentiality requests involving Category 1 aspiration hazards and suppliers that receive orders to correct deficient SDSs.
The transition period gives businesses until 2029 to complete the broader reclassification, labeling and SDS-format work. Manufacturers, importers and suppliers will need to identify affected products, coordinate document revisions and align implementation dates across their supply chains.