On December 29, 2023, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) added bisphenol S to the California List of 65 hazardous substances due to reproductive toxicity. According to California Proposition 65, after a substance is listed, if the product contains an added substance, it must provide a clear and reasonable warning label within one year, that is, the warning must be completed by December 29, 2024.

On January 10th, 2024, the Official Gazette of the European Union issued Directive (EU) 2024/232, adding Article 46 on the exemption of cadmium and lead in plastic profiles of electronic and electrical doors and windows containing recycled rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Annex III of the EU RoHS Directive. The Directive came into effect on the 20th day after its publication, that is, on January 31st, 2024. Member States should translate it into national laws and regulations before July 31, 2024.

The 11th session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (9 December 2022) adopted a set of new amendments to the seventh revised edition of the Manual of Tests and Criteria (including the first amendment), and released the eighth revised edition of the Manual of Tests and Criteria on 27 November 2023.

On November 27th, 2023, MIC of Vietnam issued a draft notice to revise and supplement the control content of communication products. The draft content is expected to come into effect on April 1, 2024, and it will replace the current effective regulation Circular 04/2023/TT-BTTTT and the circular Circular 10/2023/TT-BTTTT issued in September this year on suspending the implementation of some technical standards such as 5G NR under extreme conditions.

On December 13th, 2023, ECHA issued the REF-10 enforcement action report. The main focus of this enforcement project is to comprehensively control chemicals in products (substances, mixtures and articles) within different legislative categories such as REACH regulations, POPs regulations, RoHS directives and toy directives.

On November 15th, 2023, the UK issued the regulation UK S.I. 2023/1217, which updated the control scope of POPs regulations, and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts and related substances were included in the control scope, with the effective date of November 16th, 2023.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued the 65th revision of the Dangerous Goods Code (DGR), which will take effect on January 1st, 2024.

The standard UL 4200A:2023 for consumer products including button/coin batteries came into effect on October 23rd, 2023. 16 CFR 1263 will also take effect on the same day, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will give a 180-day enforcement transition period from September 21, 2023 to March 19, 2024, and the enforcement date of 16 CFR 1263 will be March 19, 2024.