Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in conjunction with the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, has organized the compilation of the Third Priority Control Chemicals List (Draft for Comments). The draft is currently open for public comments. This initiative aims to implement the requirement of dynamically formulating the priority control chemicals list as specified in the Action Plan for the Governance of New Pollutants.

This list includes 24 categories of chemical substances such as bisphenol A (BPA), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), and pentabromophenol. The production and use of these chemicals are mainly involved in industries including petrochemicals, plastics, rubber, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, coatings, pesticides, leather and electroplating.

The priority control chemicals list focuses on chemical substances that may persist in the environment for a long time and pose relatively significant environmental and health hazards and could present unreasonable risks to the ecological environment and human health.

The two priority control chemicals lists that had been previously released included a total of 40 categories of chemical substances, covering short-chain chlorinated paraffins, formaldehyde, mercury and mercury compounds, hexavalent chromium compounds, lead compounds, as well as human carcinogens such as benzene and o-toluidine, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and dioxins, and heavy metal substances such as thallium and thallium compounds in such industries as petrochemicals, plastics, rubber, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, leather, electroplating, non-ferrous metal smelting and mining.