Decoded Korea

Most people do not think about chemical regulations until something goes wrong. A product recall, a news headline about contaminated toys, a warning label on a can of paint. But chemical regulations are not just about factory accidents and industrial waste. Some of the most heavily regulated substances in Korea are found in products that people encounter every day — furniture, paint, batteries, jewelry, and cleaning products. Korea manages chemical substances through K-REACH (Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemical Substances), one of the most detailed chemical regulation frameworks in Asia. Unlike systems that classify a substance as simply "banned" or "allowed," K-REACH assigns substances to multiple regulatory categories simultaneously. A single chemical can be classified as toxic, restricted, subject to accident preparedness requirements, and flagged as a CMR substance. We looked up five chemicals that are present in everyday products and checked th...