The Rwandan Standards Board (RSB) has issued its Draft Rwandan Standard DRS 491 (“DRS 491”) addressing the requirements for the labeling of chemicals. “Rwanda Standards are prepared by Technical Committees and approved by Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) Board of Directors in accordance with the procedures of RSB, in compliance with Annex 3 of the WTO/TBT agreement on the preparation, adoption and application of standards. DRS 491 was prepared by Technical Committee RSB/TC 024, Organic and inorganic chemicals.”[1]
DRS 491 applies to both pure substances and their dilute solutions, to mixtures, to hazardous substances or mixtures, as well as the pictograms, signal words, hazard statements, precautionary statements, and supplemental statements. It specifically does not include requirements for the testing of substances or mixtures, and is not applicable to the following categories: medical products, veterinary products, cosmetics, munitions or explosives, pesticides, waste, and foodstuffs or animal feedstuffs in the finished stage.[2]
Chapter 3, Terms and Definitions, contains terminology consistent with chemical substance regulations, GHS labeling regulations, and with chemical laboratory terms globally. Chapter 4 specifically directs that “Chemicals shall be labelled in accordance with the latest version of ‘Globally harmonized system of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS)’ of the United Nations.”[3]
DRS 491 is only 11 pages in length, with the bulk of the language occurring in Chapter 3. It appears that the purpose of DRS 491 is “simply” to announce that the country expects to implement GHS at an as-yet-unspecified date, and will use the latest revision of GHS (presently Revision 9) to do so.
[1] Foreward. DRS 491:2022. Labelling of chemicals – Requirements.
[2] 1 Scope. DRS 491:2022. Labelling of chemicals – Requirements.
[3] 4 Labeling. DRS 491:2022. Labelling of chemicals – Requirements.
