Hazardous Substances Act

Defines a hazardous substance (วัตถุอันตราย) by listing ten categories: explosives; flammables; oxidising substances and peroxides; toxic substances; disease-causing substances; radioactive substances; substances that cause genetic change; corrosives; irritants; and any other substance, chemical or otherwise, that may harm persons, animals, plants, property or the environment. The same section defines the regulated acts (produce, import, export, transit, re-import, re-export, sell, possess), as well as label, container, advertisement and initial damages; several of these definitions were added or amended by the 2019 (No. 4) amendment.

Sets the functions of the Hazardous Substances Committee (คณะกรรมการวัตถุอันตราย), which under Section 6 is chaired by the Minister of Industry and combines ex officio members from ministries and departments with up to eight qualified members appointed by Cabinet (at least four from public-interest organisations). Its functions include proposing hazardous-substance policy and plans for Cabinet approval, monitoring and evaluating the responsible agencies, deciding or advising on the authority and duties among the responsible agencies, giving opinions on the ministerial notifications that implement the Act, advising officials on registering or revoking registration, considering complaints from people harmed by hazardous substances, publishing information to the public (which may name the substance or operator), and reporting to Cabinet on the national situation at least once a year.

Divides hazardous substances into four types according to the control needed. Type 1: production, import, export or possession must follow the prescribed criteria and methods. Type 2: the same acts require prior notification to the competent official, as well as compliance with the prescribed criteria and methods. Type 3: the same acts require a licence. Type 4: production, import, export, transit and possession are prohibited. Under paragraph 2 the Minister of Industry, on the committee's opinion, names or describes the substances, assigns their type, fixes when the notification takes effect and designates the responsible agency by Government Gazette notification; the agency for a given substance therefore comes from that notification, not from Section 18 itself.

Allows an agency of a ministry or department in the central administration to apply to be responsible for controlling particular hazardous substances. The committee considers the request and advises the Minister of Industry, whose Section 18 paragraph 2 notification then gives that agency all or part of the authority, having regard to specialist expertise, staff numbers, fit with its main mission and workload. If the committee takes a different view, the minister of the requesting agency may confirm the request within thirty days, and the matter goes through the Minister of Industry to Cabinet for decision.

Subject to Section 36, nobody may produce, import, export or possess a Type 2 hazardous substance unless they have first notified the competent official. When a substance is newly declared Type 2, existing producers, importers, exporters and possessors must notify their current activity within the period set in the notification. The official issues a notification receipt (ใบรับแจ้ง) valid for the period stated on it, which may not exceed three years from issue. Type 2 operators must also comply with the responsible minister's notifications under Section 20. Breach of the notification duty carries up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 100,000 baht or both (Section 72).

Subject to Section 36, nobody may produce, import, export or possess a Type 3 hazardous substance without a licence from the competent official. Applications and grants follow a ministerial regulation, which must set out as clearly as practicable the cases in which a licence can and cannot be granted and the time limit for deciding. Licence holders must also comply with the responsible minister's Section 20 notifications. Related provisions: a licence lasts for the period stated in it, not more than three years (Section 26); an application to renew filed before expiry lets the holder keep operating until refusal (Section 27); a refusal can be appealed to the responsible minister within thirty days, with the minister's decision final (Section 28).

If it appears to the competent official that a licence holder has breached or failed to comply with the Act, the official may suspend the licence for a period the official thinks fit but not exceeding one year, and may revoke it in a serious case. The affected person may appeal to the responsible minister within thirty days of learning of the order, and the minister's decision is final; an appeal does not stay the suspension or revocation (Section 33). After revocation the holder may sell existing stock within three months (Section 34) and cannot apply for a new licence until five years have passed (Section 35).

Requires the Minister of Industry, on the committee's opinion, to publish a list of hazardous substances whose production process and hazards are generally well known. For Type 2 or Type 3 substances outside that list, production or import requires prior registration with the competent official; only after receiving the registration certificate (ใบสำคัญการขึ้นทะเบียน) may the producer or importer proceed under Section 22 (notification) or be licensed under Section 23. A registration certificate lasts no more than six years from issue. The responsible minister may exempt a substance from registering again if the same substance is already registered, or in other justified cases. Registration cannot be accepted on the grounds listed in Section 38 and may be revoked under Section 40.

Prohibits anyone from producing, importing or possessing a Type 4 hazardous substance, except with written permission from the responsible agency granted only for use as an analytical reference standard in a laboratory. Applications and permissions follow criteria, methods and conditions the responsible minister sets by Gazette notification on the committee's opinion. Once the Minister of Industry declares a substance Type 4, producers, importers and possessors must follow the competent official's orders, and Section 41 (destroy or deal with the substance as the official orders) applies by analogy. Breach of the prohibition is punishable under Section 74. Separately, Section 44 lets the responsible minister exempt certain hazardous substances from the Act in whole or in part, for example small-hazard quantities, substances used for study, testing, analysis, research and development, and government-held substances.

Prohibits producing, importing, exporting or possessing a Type 1, 2 or 3 hazardous substance that is (1) counterfeit, (2) substandard, (3) deteriorated, (4) required to be registered but not registered, or (5) registration-revoked. Possession in order to destroy the substance, hand it to an official, or for another duty under law is excluded. Sections 47 to 49 define the categories: counterfeit includes imitations, substances bearing a false name, producer, place of production or claim of registration, and substances whose active content is outside the notified tolerance by a notified level; substandard covers smaller deviations from the tolerance or the registered purity; deteriorated covers substances past the expiry date on the label or altered into one of those conditions. Anyone who knows they hold such a substance must destroy it, report it to the competent official or hand it over (Section 46).

Competent officials may enter premises used for dealing in, producing or storing hazardous substances (or suspected of being so used) between sunrise and sunset or during the premises' working hours, and enter vehicles carrying or suspected of carrying hazardous substances, to inspect the substances, containers, account books and documents; take reasonable samples; search, hold, seize or attach substances, containers, books, documents and related items where an offence is suspected; and summon people to give statements or produce documents. Officials must show their identity card (Section 56). Seized items that spoil, or whose keeping risks damage or danger or costs too much, may be destroyed or otherwise dealt with (Section 55), and items not liable to forfeiture must be returned without delay. Failing to give reasonable facilitation is an offence (Section 86). Section 53 is repealed (the 2008 amendment's explanatory note records the removal of officials' arrest power).

Chapter 3 covers civil duties and liability. Section 63 makes a producer, importer, carrier, transit operator, re-importer, re-exporter or possessor of a hazardous substance responsible for damage arising from a substance in their possession, unless they prove that the damage resulted from force majeure (เหตุสุดวิสัย) or from the injured person's own fault; the text sets no fault element and puts the burden on the defendant to prove those two defences. Section 64 imposes the same responsibility, with the same two defences, on a seller or deliverer to the person harmed. Employers and principals are jointly liable for torts committed by those persons in their work (Section 65), and everyone in the distribution chain shares liability (Section 66). A claim lapses three years after the injured person knew of the damage, that the substance was hazardous and who is liable to pay (Section 67); a person who pays may seek recourse up the chain (Section 68). The public prosecutor may sue for the State's response costs and for harm to ownerless property, natural resources and State property (Section 69). For this Chapter, which substances count as hazardous may be fixed by notification of the Minister of Industry (Section 58).

Anyone who breaches Section 23 paragraph 1 (producing, importing, exporting or possessing a Type 3 hazardous substance without a licence) is liable to imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 200,000 baht or both. The graded penalty chapter (Chapter 4) sets related figures: failing to comply with a Type 1 operator's duties, or other Section 71 duties, up to six months or 50,000 baht or both (Section 71); breaching the Type 2 notification duty up to one year or 100,000 baht or both (Section 72); handling counterfeit, substandard, deteriorated or unregistered Type 3 substances is punished in Sections 75 to 78, with the penalty reduced to two-thirds for Type 2 (Section 79) and, for the Section 75 to 77 offences, to one half for Type 1 (Section 80). A repeat offender faces an extra half of the penalty (Section 87/1), and a director or manager who ordered or failed to prevent the offence is also liable (Section 87/2).

Anyone who breaches Section 43 paragraph 1 by producing, importing or possessing a Type 4 hazardous substance without permission is liable to imprisonment of up to ten years or a fine of up to 1,000,000 baht or both; if the act was a negligent act of an importer, exporter or possessor, the penalty is a fine of up to 800,000 baht. Transit of a Type 4 substance is separately punishable by up to ten years or 1,000,000 baht or both (Section 70/2). For toxic chemicals and precursors listed under the Chemical Weapons Convention, a person who instigates or supports an offence under Section 73 or Section 74 receives the same penalty as the principal (Section 74/1), and a Thai national who commits the offence outside the Kingdom is punished in the Kingdom (Section 74/2).