How to check if your chemicals are dual-use chemicals

A dual-use chemical is a substance that may have legitimate commercial or industrial uses, but may also be used to produce weapons or illicit drugs. These range from widely used industrial solvents to advanced chemical weapons precursors.

Dual-use chemicals require careful supervision to prevent misuse, and proper regulation of these chemicals is a key aspect of international security and nonproliferation efforts.

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International frameworks and agreements

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) remains one of the main international treaties governing the regulation of dual-use chemicals. The framework entered into force in 1997 and is administered and overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The CWC prohibits the acquisition, stockpiling, storage, transfer, development, production or use of chemical weapons. Member states must report and monitor any facility producing a number of specified chemicals and must appoint national authorities to implement the treaty’s provisions.

The International Drug Control Board’s (INCB) “red list” contains drug precursor regulations in place in most countries, imposing control or reporting requirements on many common chemicals used in the production of illicit drugs, such as acetone and hydrochloric acid.

National legislation

Countries are required to adopt comprehensive legislation and a series of stringent regulatory measures to effectively control dual-use chemicals. Systems for the import, export and transfer of these substances must be licensed to manage and monitor this.

National regulations typically organize chemicals into separate lists based on their potential for legal and illegal use. Schedule 1 chemicals are typically the most closely controlled.

A range of national regulations typically take into account and extend this international framework, and governments will also conduct regular audits and inspections of both chemical producers and users under their jurisdiction to ensure compliance.

Many countries’ strategic export control regulations (such as the US CCL and ITAR) also list chemicals used in or as such in propellants or explosives. Specific lists of “human rights” may also regulate chemicals in the European Union and the United Kingdom. These chemicals are subject to strict regulations, restricting or banning their export to many countries.

Challenges and compliance

Ensuring effective compliance with these regulations is a challenge. One of the key issues is the huge number of regulated chemicals and their wide use in various industries. Monitoring and enforcing such a large number of chemicals is complex and time-consuming.

Much of this difficulty stems from dual-use chemical ‘lists’. Most dual-use chemicals are not explicitly mentioned on these lists either by chemical name or CAS number. Instead, they are documented in complex and difficult-to-understand controlled “chemical spaces” that typically contain chemicals with compositions similar to the examples given.

Regulatory efforts are further complicated by the rapid development of chemical synthesis and production technologies. New chemicals are constantly emerging and need to be checked against dual-use regulations.

Once a chemical is correctly identified as dual-use, it may continue to be used, but the user is responsible for reporting and tracking its use annually to the appropriate authorities.

Application

The initial identification of a chemical as a dual-use substance remains the most difficult aspect of the process. To streamline and facilitate this process, Scitegrity, in cooperation with several large chemical and pharmaceutical companies, has developed the Controlled Substances Squared software and online platform.

The system takes into account a wide range of dual-use regulations, enabling users to check named substances and mark them as dual-use, where appropriate, by querying the appropriate ‘chemical space’.

Users can upload a list of their chemicals and the tool will automatically check each one to determine whether it is regulated as a dual-use product.

Image source: Scitegrity

Thanks

Manufactured from materials originally designed by Joe Bradley of Scitegrity Limited.

About Scitegrity

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