By: Sydney Sybydlo
Here are a few noteworthy global EHS regulatory changes in March 2023. We cover EHS legislation and standards for over 30 countries and 400 jurisdictions. If you would like to track legislative changes for specific regions, countries, or jurisdictions, we are happy to help. Please send us a request for more information here, and we will contact you shortly.
- Canada – Federal
- Canada – Alberta
- Canada – British Columbia
- Canada – Ontario
- Canada – Prince Edward Island
- Canada – Saskatchewan
- United States – Federal
- United States – Ohio
- United States – Utah
- European Union
- Belgium
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Northern Ireland
- Poland
- Singapore
- United Kingdom
- China
Canada – Federal
Amended Document – Canada Labour Code
Amending Document – Order Fixing June 12, 2023 as the Day on Which Sections 447 to 449 and 517 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2 Come into Force
First Effective Date: 12 June 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
The amended document raises the minimum age of employment for certain occupations from 17 years to 18 years.
The Canada Labour Code Standards Regulations are amended accordingly, to allow the continued employment of persons under 18 years of age under certain conditions and to prohibit employers from allowing employees under the age of 18 to work between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Canada – Alberta
New Principal Document – Brine-hosted Mineral Resource Development Rules
First Effective Date: 1 March 2023
Industry Sector: Mining & Minerals Industry
This document, according to the government, “establishes licencing and operating standards for brine-hosted mineral development to encourage the efficient, safe, orderly and environmentally responsible development of Alberta’s brine-hosted mineral resources. [It] enacts rules governing well licencing and abandonment, drilling and other production operations. It also establishes administrative standards for recording, collecting, and reporting brine-hosted mineral resource well and facility data.”
New Principal Document – Manual 027: Well Drilling and Completion Data Submission System Guidance
First Effective Date: 17 March 2023
Industry Sector: Oil & Gas Industry
According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, this document is “a submission guidance companion to the requirements in Directive 059: Well Drilling and Completion Data Filing Requirements […] It allows users to submit well drilling, completion, abandonment, and servicing data directly to the AER using one of several designated information submission systems. Submission processes are outlined in this manual.”
Canada – British Columbia
Amended Document – Public Notification Regulation
Amending Document – Public Notification Regulation 2023-03-07 Amendments
First Effective Date: 1 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
The amended document notably–
- revises the definition of “minor amendment” to include changes in activities that would result in an equal or lesser impact on the environment;
- adds to the list of information that must be furnished by permit applicants (to introduce waste into the environment);
- removes certain requirements concerning posting permit applications on billboards or in the British Columbia Gazette; and
- clarifies the Schedule specifying notification, posting, and publication requirements for regulated facilities and projects.
Canada – Ontario
New Principal Document – Clean Energy Credits
First Effective Date: 15 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
This document prescribes certain energy sources as environmental attributes associated with electricity generation that are recognized as clean energy credits (and which may be transferred), for which certain requirements of the Act apply.
Canada – Prince Edward Island
New Principal Document – Forest Fire Protection Regulations
First Effective Date: 4 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
This document establishes requirements for persons who start fires, based on the fire’s category and establishes fire seasons for certain counties, within which prohibitions apply. It also contains requirements for the operation of forestry equipment or machinery in proximity to forests and sets out rules governing permits for fires.
Canada – Saskatchewan
Amended Document – The Environmental Management and Protection (Saskatchewan Environmental Code Adoption) Regulations
Amending Document – The Environmental Management and Protection (Saskatchewan Environmental Code Adoption) Amendment Regulations, 2023
First Effective Date: 17 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
The amended document notably adds specific rules governing transfer stations (used “to temporarily store solid waste before its transport to a treatment, recycling, recovery or disposal facility or a landfill,” or “burn clean, non-painted and non-treated wood”). It introduces sampling, reporting and recordkeeping, controlled burn regulations, prohibitions on certain types of waste, rules concerning the closure of transfer stations, environmental protection plans, operations plans, and emergency response plans, as well as transfer station siting and design criteria.
United States – Federal
Amended Document – 42 CFR 73 Select Agents And Toxins
Amending Document – Possession, Use, and Transfer of Select Agents and Toxins—Addition of SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2 Chimeric Viruses Resulting From Any Deliberate Manipulation of SARS-CoV-2 To Incorporate Nucleic Acids Coding for SARS-CoV Virulence Factors to the HHS List of Select Agents and Toxins
First Effective Date: 3 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Public Administration & Institutions
The amended document, according to the government, requires certain regulated entities “to obtain prior approval from [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to conduct deliberate manipulation of SARS-CoV-2 to incorporate nucleic acids coding for SARS-CoV- virulence factors because these chimeric viruses have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety.”
New Principal Document – 40 CFR 60 Subpart TTTa Standards of Performance for Industrial Surface Coating: Surface Coating of Plastic Parts for Business Machines for Which Construction, Reconstruction, or Modification Commenced After June 21, 2022
First Effective Date: 27 March 2023
Industry Sector: Hardware Manufacturing Industry
This document, according to its content, applies “to each spray booth in which plastic parts for use in the manufacture of business machines receive prime coats, color coats, texture coats, or touch-up coats” in facilities “for which construction, modification, or reconstruction begins after June 21, 2022.” It contains volatile organic compound (VOC) emission limits, testing and sampling requirements, and reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Amendments to 40 CFR 60 Subpart TTT Standards of Performance for Industrial Surface Coating: Surface Coating of Plastic Parts for Business Machines are also made to “[require] electronic reporting, [provide] an updated definition of ‘business machine,’ and [make] new voluntary consensus standards (VCS) available for use as alternatives to [Environmental Protection Agency] Method 24 for industrial surface coating of plastic parts for business machines.” They also provide that the document only applies to facilities whose construction, modification, or reconstruction (“work”) began between January 8, 1986, and June 21, 2022. Facilities whose work began after June 21, 2022, should refer to the new 40 CFR 60 Subpart TTTa Standards of Performance for Industrial Surface Coating: Surface Coating of Plastic Parts for Business Machines for Which Construction, Reconstruction, or Modification Commenced After June 21, 2022) Additional information on these changes is available here.
New Principal Document – 23 CFR 680 National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Standards and Requirements
First Effective Date: 30 March 2023
Industry Sector: Road Transportation Industry, Utilities & Communications Industry
This document, according to its content, prescribes “minimum standards and requirements for projects funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and projects for the construction of publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) chargers […] including any EV charging infrastructure project funded with Federal funds that is treated as a project on a Federal highway.” It applies to the installation, operation, and maintenance of EV charging infrastructure and governs its interoperability, traffic control devices and signage, data submissions and the accessibility of pricing and availability data.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, these rules “will help to ensure that chargers operated by different networks will operate similarly and provide the travelling public with a predictable EV charging experience.”
United States – Ohio
Amended Document – OAC Chapter 3745-31 Permit-to-Install New Sources and Permit-to-Install and Operate Program
Amending Document – OAC Chapter 3745-31 Permit-to-Install New Sources and Permit-to-Install and Operate Program 2023-03-11 Amendments
First Effective Date: 11 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Building Management & Maintenance
The amended document, according to the government, modifies various requirements concerning new and modified sources of air pollution, especially pertaining to the requirement to apply for and obtain the permit-to-install or the permit-to-install and operate. The changes notably:
- add ten new categories of activity to qualify for exemption from air pollution permitting requirements and to qualify, “the scale of activities must fall below a certain threshold”;
- remove one category of air pollution permitting requirement exemption for very small municipal waste incinerators; and
- add new permit-by-rule categories “for small and medium-sized dry-cleaning facilities that do not use perchloroethylene solvents, and for transloaders, which are conveyor devices used to transfer bulk material between trucks and rail cars.”
United States – Utah
New Principal Document – UC Chapter 73-3d Water Preferences During Emergencies
First Effective Date: 2 May 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
This document prescribes the order of preferred uses of water in the event of a temporary water shortage emergency. It requires a person using water preferentially to measure the water taken during the emergency and requires them to adopt an emergency response plan prior to the declaration of an emergency by the governor. Finally, it contains provisions requiring preferential users to compensate interrupted users for the value of water used.
European Union
Amended Document – Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the details of the content and presentation of the information in relation to the principle of ‘do no significant harm’, specifying the content, methodologies and presentation of information in relation to sustainability indicators and adverse sustainability impacts, and the content and presentation of the information in relation to the promotion of environmental or social characteristics and sustainable investment objectives in pre-contractual documents, on websites and in periodic reports (Text with EEA relevance)
Amending Document – Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/363 of 31 October 2022 amending and correcting the regulatory technical standards laid down in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 as regards the content and presentation of information in relation to disclosures in pre-contractual documents and periodic reports for financial products investing in environmentally sustainable economic activities (Text with EEA relevance)
First Effective Date: 20 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
The amended document further requires financial market participants to provide more transparent and detailed pre-contractual, website and periodic disclosures to investors regarding the environmental sustainability risks and impacts, such as requiring graphical representations to separately illustrate the proportion of investments in two categories based on the environmentally sustainable economic activities specified in different Sections, revising the periodic disclosure template, incorporating nuclear and gas disclosures, and correcting two cross-references in the periodic disclosure related to investments in environmentally sustainable economic activities.
Belgium
Amended Document – Code of well-being at work (2017)
Amending Document – Royal Decree amending Title 3 on asbestos of Book VI of the Labour Welfare Code
First Effective Date: 9 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
The amended document notably modifies a large number of rules related to work site asbestos risks, including:
- making annually the obligation for the project owner to create and maintain an inventory of all asbestos on the work site;
- specifying a technical standard that must be followed when laboratory sampling work is done in order to create or maintain the inventory;
- obliging work site subcontractors to stop working if they find new asbestos sources on the work site as well as following a specific procedure;
- obliging the laboratory designated to carry out the requisite daily sampling analysis during the removal work, to establish a sampling strategy which meets a specific technical standard;
- obliging the employer to keep the Workplace Well-Being Committee (a business-specific committee comprised of workers and management) apprised of the sampling strategy specifically chosen;
- obliging the employer to set out detailed reasons if the pre-established work plan for asbestos removal is derogated from;
- obliging the employer to apply to a government agency for approval of the asbestos removal strategy if the hermetic seal method is not used;
- clarifying certain details regarding the obligation to designate a laboratory to test the airborne asbestos concentration on a daily basis;
- requiring additional steps during the procedure for ending the asbestos works, notably by requiring a visual inspection with an accompanying report to be carried out, by specifying additional rules for the testing of air quality prior to removal of the hermetic seal, and by requiring cameras or windows to be installed that allow a visual inspection of the hermetically sealed zone; and
- setting rules for the protection of the worker tasked with creating the inventory of asbestos on the work site.
Germany
Amended Document – Ordinance on the implementation of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act in the trading period 2021 to 2030 (Emissions Trading Ordinance 2030 – EHV 2030)
Amending Document – Ordinance amending the Emissions Trading Ordinance 2030 and the Emissions Reporting Ordinance 2022 (EHV2030uaÄndV kaAbk. )
First Effective Date: 25 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
The amended document notably:
- updates certain definitions, such as “liquid biofuels”, “Biomass Electricity Sustainability Ordinance” and “Biofuel Sustainability Ordinance”;
- sets out rules for demonstrating compliance with sustainability requirements and greenhouse gas reduction requirements in the stationary sector and in the aviation sector for the applicability of the zero-emission factor;
- clarifies the obligations of aircraft operators to submit a monitoring plan;
- sets out reporting requirements for non-essential changes to the monitoring methodology plan and for the cessation of operations of an installation;
- specifies the reporting requirements for emissions from flights between two third countries;
- clarifies the exemptions for certain combustion units and installations; and
- provides that the competent authority should estimate emissions where an operator has not properly reported the emissions caused by its activities.
Ireland
Amended Document – Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations 2007
Amending Document – Waste Management (Collection Permit) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
First Effective Date: 153 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
The amended document, according to the Irish Government, “[gives] effect to national waste policy regarding the regulation of the collection of household and commercial waste.” Notably, it provides for:
- “the introduction of incentivised charging for commercial customers”;
- “the provision of a biowaste, mixed dry recycling and residual waste bin to all waste collection customers in the commercial sector, to weigh each collection of commercial waste and report or make those weights available to the customer”;
- “the updating of the customer charter for households”;
- “the introduction of a customer charter for commercial customers”; and
- “the inclusion of soft plastics on the list of recyclable material with the list now to be available on the website www.mywaste.ie“.
Italy
New Principal Document – Legislative Decree 23 February 2023, n. 18 Implementation of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 16 December 2020, concerning the quality of water intended for human consumption
First Effective Date: 21 March 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Building Management & Maintenance
This document, as stated in its title, establishes regulations pertaining to the quality of water intended for human consumption. It covers a wide range of topics, such as the field of application, exemptions, obligations to ensure the wholesomeness and cleanliness of water intended for human consumption, parameter values, risk assessment, management of drinking water and internal water distribution systems, minimum hygiene requirements for materials that come into contact with water intended for human consumption, and chemical reagents and active and passive filtering materials used in the treatment of water intended for human consumption.
Additional information is available here.
Northern Ireland
New Principal Document – The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023
First Effective Date: 28 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
According to the Government of Northern Ireland, this document “[imposes] requirements on producers who are established in Northern Ireland to collect data on the packaging they supply to others, and, in some cases, to report some of that information to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.”
In particular, sets out the obligations of producers, the information that producers must collect and report, provisions for registered schemes and exemptions from data reporting requirements for certain producers who are members of a registered scheme, and rules on mid-year changes in scheme membership.
It replaces The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023. The new document primarily covers the same scope as the superseded document, with amendments, according to the Government of Northern Ireland, to correct an incorrect amount concerning the threshold for the aggregate turnover of companies in a group of companies that are producers and make other corrections.
Poland
Amended Document – Regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Welfare of 30 May 1996 on conducting medical examinations of employees, the scope of preventive health care over employees and medical certificates issued for purposes provided for in the Labor Code
Amending Document – Regulation of the Minister of Health of January 5, 2023 amending the regulation on medical examinations of employees, the scope of preventive health care for employees and medical certificates issued for the purposes provided for in the Labor Code
Published Date: 25 January 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
The amended document notably specifies the requirements for medical examinations of employees who have suffered an accident at work or have been diagnosed with an occupational disease, updates the requirements for physicians who are authorized to perform preventive examinations and preventive health care, updates the conditions for issuing medical certificates to employees, and clarifies the model of the medical examination referral with regard to taking into account the criteria for assessing exposure to ionizing radiation when describing working conditions.
Singapore
New Principal Document – Radiation Protection (Ionising Radiation) Regulations 2023
First Effective Date: 20 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Building Management & Maintenance
This document applies to companies working with any kind of radioactive materials or apparatuses that produce ionizing radiation. It establishes a wide variety of rules applicable to such companies, including most notably (a) eligibility requirements and rights and obligations attached to licenses to use ionizing apparatuses or radioactive materials, and (b) occupational health and safety requirements for radiation workers, including a registration requirement as a radiation worker, and a prior medical examination.
It replaces the Radiation Protection (Ionising Radiation) Regulations. The new document modifies a wide variety of rules applicable to companies that use radioactive materials or ionizing apparatuses. The changes include most notably:
- removal of many rules applicable to specific apparatuses and materials, and the establishment of new rules applicable to broad types of exposure, most notably to occupational radiation exposure;
- modifications to the rules governing licensing and registration of radiation workers;
- modifications to the rules governing exemptions of certain activities and materials from regulation;
- new “clearance” rules which allow certain materials to be free from regulation after a certain point;
- new “justification” provisions that require the use of radiation to be justified;
- a new requirement for license holders to designate a list of responsible persons to be responsible for materials and for apparatuses;
- new rules regarding the management of radioactive wastes;
- a new requirement to obtain approval to accumulate and transport radioactive wastes;
- new requirements regarding emergency preparedness and response;
- new requirements regarding the security of radioactive materials (from theft, intentional damage…);
- new restrictions on the purchase and sale of radioactive materials, now only to license holders; and
- a modification of dose limits and weighting factors (of radiation exposure to various parts of the body).
United Kingdom
New Principal Document – The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023
First Effective Date: 28 February 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry
This document, according to the Government of the United Kingdom, “impose[s] requirements on producers who are established in England to collect data on the packaging they supply to others, and, in some cases, to report some of that information to the Environment Agency.”
In particular, it sets out the obligations of producers, the information that producers must collect and report, provisions for registered schemes and exemptions from data reporting requirements for certain producers who are members of a registered scheme, rules for mid-year changes in scheme membership, and violations and penalties for breaches of the requirements.
New Principal Document – The Building Safety (Registration of Higher-Risk Buildings and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023
First Effective Date: 6 April 2023
Industry Sector: General Industry, Office Spaces, Building Management & Maintenance
This document is particularly relevant to those responsible for higher-risk buildings. According to the Government of the United Kingdom, it “make[s] provision about the register of higher-risk buildings held by the building safety regulator (‘the regulator’).” Notably, this document contains provisions about submitting an application for registration of a higher-risk building, paying the applicable fee, and withdrawing that application as well as about decisions made by the regulator that may be subject to review under section 25 of the Building Safety Act 2022.
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