The Chemical Cloud is an inter-ministerial chemical substance management platform that congregates chemical substance management information. Its purpose is to strengthen chemical substance management information related exchanges and promote competent authorities’ management of chemical substances according to ministerial function. Thereby achieving chemical substance information warning and alert functions. The main objectives of this project are: capital database expansion, application service development, inter-ministerial cooperation, data integration analysis, other existing database transfers, information security processing, and education training and coordination meetings.
In respect of capital database expansion, the continuous rotation of thirty-six databases has been maintained, while ten units, eleven chemical substance management information systems, and thirteen environmental cloud data in rotation have been added, forty-three system databases in all. The comprehensive database contents were supplied for service development and inter-ministerial cooperation use.
In terms of application service development, the twelve functions of the Chemical Cloud platform have been refined, including five data inquiries, two data filters, three reports, one file download, and one system login in order to achieve user-friendly operations. In conjunction with the ministerial needs, three functions have been developed, including the manufacturers with undeclared controlled chemicals by Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Ministry of Labor, the setting of a three-stage filter adjustment and attention level for the Chemical Cloud of Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Office of Homeland Security IED precursor management area planning. Upon request of the Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare, 25 columns of toxic chemical operator files and daily operation record details, two web service interfaces in all were supplied. In addition, additional interface columns were included, 34 in all, for the Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare to receive. For the chemical knowledge map, 12 product test items, 159 chemical substance toxicological information, descriptions of hazard precautions and coping measures, and 13 toxic substances announced by Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau, Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan), and 26 food containers and packaging test data items were collected. In addition, the chemical knowledge map revision was completed for challenge games in the interactive area, thus enabling the general public to understand chemical substances they come in contact in their daily life. Through “data visualization and scientific decision-making” four types of Chemical Cloud display service functions have been developed. Chemical Cloud event handling mechanisms have also been established and chemical substance warnings available in everyday life have been planned, four functions in all. Quick Report in daily life is also provided to serve as a reference for relevant units.
As for inter-ministerial cooperation, in connection with TGOS Maps set up by the Ministry of the Interior, four graphic features have been added to the Chemical Cloud in order to present information on the hot spots for chemical substance operations. Interfacing Ministry of Finance Information Center’s E-Uniform Invoice in order to assist the Chemical Cloud in tracking and tracing chemical substance flow has been discussed. The Central Region Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs applied the “selected substance undeclared manufacturer filter” feature set up by the Chemical Cloud and reported 41 investigated manufacturers, of which two were suspected to be undeclared manufacturers. This is an indication of the effectiveness of the Chemical Cloud in assisting ministries set up a screening mechanism. The structure and content of the Food Cloud were collected, the Chemical Cloud and Food Cloud cooperation mode was analyzed, and the “three-stage filter method” for substances drawing food safety concerns were perfected. After confirming the logic of the Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare, filter and matching results were gathered. Three methods were administered to perfect the filter, namely, adding toxic substance rotation data columns, perfecting the three-stage filter method for substances drawing food safety concerns, including the addition of “if the chemical substance is allowed for food processing”, “if the operator has the food additive product login code”, and “if the buyer has the status other than food status”, and the addition of eight classes for determination to provide the manufacturer list to the Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare by means of information system downloads to conform suspicious names in violation of the law. Additionally, the Ministry of Health and Welfare or agencies that use the features developed in this project shall be notified. If the list of manufacturers has been confirmed to be without food safety concerns, the data application feedback form shall be filled out in writing and replied to the Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau, Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Taiwan to facilitate setting exclusion or note remarks.
In addition, the planning and confirmation with the Food and Drug Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare regarding the Food Cloud cross-cloud cooperation mechanism have been completed to establish the cooperation flowchart. The three data items of the Food Cloud available on the Chemical Cloud include: the target manufacturer’s full information of chemical substances in operation, the provision of target chemical substance related food manufacturer operation information, and the filter of related chemical substances. The Food Cloud on the other hand provides guidance, inspection, and confirmation and reporting on the list of names after inspection. Based on the dataset that combines Environmental Cloud and Chemical Cloud chemical substances that show connectivity, two “water pollution” datasets have been selected (e.g., “water pollution source permit and declaration data”, “total water pollutant discharge” and “photochemical test station” data, and “Kaohsiung Talinpu neighboring air quality test station test data”. Five chemical substances have been analyzed, such as water pollution (copper metal) and photochemical substances (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), their pollution test values and raw material operation trends of neighboring businesses. Furthermore, the geographic map was used to note manufacturer information.
In terms of data integration and analysis, 105 food safety events in the recent ten years (from September 2007 to date) were collected. The main contents of the events were compiled and classified, targeting the cause of the event, the impact on consumers, the likelihood of an event recurrence. In the past, illegal additive (mixtures) had been the highest occurring, 62 events in all, accounting for 59% of all past food safety events and an indication of the chemical industry’s raw material supply chain management gap. Therefore, this project proposed six cross-ministerial labor of division and cooperation suggestion targeting the insufficiency. Concerning food safety events that took place in the past, this project has also included 57 chemical substances that draw food safety concerns into the 100 designated chemical substances or manufacturer theme data analysis. The event analysis has been modulated to propose quick report analysis reports in response to future emergency needs. In addition, this project proposed nine ministerial regulations and suggested improving chemical substance tracking and tracking management. Among them, the evaluation of the relevant ministries involved in two regulations shows the feasibility of the gradual completion of the tracing and tracking system in the future. For the Chemical Cloud substance overall planning and structure part, two chemical substance management strategic recommendations have been added, namely improving the management approach for chemical substances drawing food safety concerns, international trends and practices, and information applications at the Chemical Cloud end. For the precursor substance of Improvised Explosive Device, assistance was offered to the IED, Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau, Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan) in listing 21 IED raw material control items, targeting controlled chemical substances in accordance with Taiwan’s existing laws as well as the 2013 European Union Marketing and Use of Explosives Precursors Regulations and control situations in Australia and other countries in order to evaluate and establish an IED filter mechanism for 104 chemical substances to be included in the subsequent reinforced control evaluation list.
Concerning the database, operating system, and website platform transfer, in conjunction with organizational restructuring, the existing Chemical Cloud platform MySQL Database has been changed to SQL Server Database, the operating system was changed from Linux to Windows, and the website platform was changed from Tomcat to IIS. For the information safety design, in order to ensure data transfer security, the Chemical Cloud platform and chemical knowledge map website were changed from HTTP to “HTTPS” transfer security encryption. For the education training and coordination meeting part, the ministerial coordination meetings and demand interviews were completed, 15 sessions in all; 6 sessions of education training were conducted, with 105 participants.
