Hazardous chemicals: MSIHC approvals in Tamil Nadu
Who this applies to
- You hold a hazardous chemical that may cross a threshold in MSIHC Schedule 2 or 3. Crossing a threshold can make the site a Major Accident Hazard (MAH) installation, and different duties start at different thresholds.
- You are handling methanol or ethanol in quantity: both carry their own cross-regime picture (PESO storage licensing, a possible MSIHC threshold, and, for ethanol, an excise layer), covered in its own section below.
- You already hold, or are applying for, a factory licence for a hazardous-process facility: MSIHC obligations and the Site Appraisal Committee on the factory approvals page are closely linked but not the same requirement.
What MSIHC covers
The Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989 work through chemical criteria, named substances, industrial activities and threshold quantities, and different duties start at different thresholds. A chemical appearing on a list does not, by itself, mean that every MSIHC duty applies to you.
It helps to keep the duties apart: preventing and controlling a major accident, giving notice of one, site notification, the safety report and audit, the on-site emergency plan, the off-site emergency plan, information to the public, and import information. Schedule 5 names the concerned authority for each.
You, as occupier, prepare the on-site plan and keep it current before a new activity starts. The off-site plan is prepared by the concerned authority, with information and cooperation from you. Under Schedule 5 the concerned authority is the Chief Inspector of Factories for an industrial activity in a factory, the Pollution Control Board for isolated storage and for imports, and the District Collector for the off-site plan. In Tamil Nadu that means DISH for a factory's on-site plan, and the District Collector, with the District Disaster Management Authority, for the off-site plan, but check the schedule entry for each duty. The off-site plan is also distinct from the general district disaster plan; see disaster management.
The Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Response) Rules, 1996, which set up crisis groups, are a separate instrument from these Rules.
What it costs to get wrong
Carrying on an industrial activity that has crossed the relevant threshold, without the notification, the safety report or the emergency plan that threshold requires, is enforceable under the Rules and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. This page does not state a fine. Neither site appraisal, the factory licence nor a PESO licence amounts to MSIHC compliance.
The process
Build the inventory before you pick a threshold
Identify each substance and mixture by composition, CAS number, physical state, flash point, toxicity and reactivity, test it against the Schedule 1 criteria and the named chemicals, and aggregate quantities the way the relevant schedule directs. Only then decide which of rules 4 and 5, site notification, the safety report, emergency planning, public information or import information actually applies.
Notify the concerned authority, and keep the on-site plan
Site notification goes to the concerned authority in Schedule 5 before the stage the Rules set. The Schedule 3 threshold quantities for particular chemicals, including methanol and ethanol, have not been confirmed against the current schedule for this page, and one number should never be copied onto every duty.
Where the higher threshold applies, prepare the safety report and the safety audit. Keep safety data, labels and disclosure to workers and emergency responders current; a generic supplier sheet is not automatically the document the Indian rule requires.
Support the off-site plan, and notify material changes
Give the concerned authority the information it needs for the off-site plan, without treating that plan as your own statutory document. Notify any modification that materially changes the risk. Importing a covered chemical carries its own information duty under the import rule, and an IEC from DGFT does not discharge it.
Methanol and ethanol handling
Methanol and ethanol can sit in more than one regime at once. The dedicated account is methanol, ethanol and industrial alcohol.
- PESO. Methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol are among the substances PESO treats as needing a licence under the Petroleum Rules, 2002, through the Inflammable Substances Act, 1952. Classify the product from its flash point and composition, then take the licence form and quantity limits from the PESO page. Do not apply the diesel (Class B) quantity bands to them.
- MSIHC, if the relevant threshold is crossed. A PESO classification does not exempt the chemical. The Schedule 3 quantities are not stated here.
- Tamil Nadu excise, for the alcohol product in front of you. Rectified spirit, denatured spirit and methyl alcohol follow different rules. Ethanol is not automatically the same licence as methanol.
Common failure points
- Applying one threshold to every MSIHC duty.
- Treating a hazardous waste as a hazardous chemical, or the reverse.
- Assuming a PESO licence is MSIHC compliance.
- Writing the off-site plan as if the occupier were the only authority responsible for it.
- Assuming site appraisal or the factory licence absorbs these duties.
Holding a hazardous chemical above threshold?
Send us what you store and the quantities involved. We'll tell you whether you're an MAH unit and which MSIHC duties apply.