5th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 17, 1998)

3-(10) Relax the standards on designation of personnel responsible for handling freezers for building use

1. Complainant: Tokyo Chamber of Commerce

2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of International Trade and Industry

3. Complaint:

Because the manufacture of chlorofluorocarbon gas is prohibited, a substitute for it is used even in freezers for building use. Conventionally, types of freezers were adopted for which no special personnel responsible for freezing safety were designated, but for the aforementioned reason, the types of freezers requiring personnel so qualified have increased. If new freezing equipment has been authorized as equipment so designated, the qualified personnel are not necessary even at present, but for existing equipment, measures to be considered to relax the standards for designating qualified personnel from 300 tons or more to 600 tons or more.

4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:

Because chlorofluorocarbon 11, which does not come under the category of high-pressure gas, is mainly used for the freezers for building use already in existence, in this case, the High-Pressure Gas Safety Law is not applied.

In new freezers for buildings, as a substitute for chlorofluorocarbon 11, the manufacture of which is prohibited, chlorofluorocarbons 22 and 134a - which come under the category of high-pressure gas, owing to their thermal properties - are used as coolants. The High-Pressure Gas Safety Law is thus applied, and if freezing capacity exceeds 50 tons per day, designation of personnel responsible for freezing safety is necessary.

However, designation of freezing safety personnel is not necessary in the following cases.

(1) When using freezers that the Minister of International Trade and Industry, etc., has recognized the structural and functional safety of via various types of safety equipment, control equipment, and the like

(2) When using freezers for which safety has guaranteed through general assembly, airtight testing, and trial operation at the freezer-manufacturing factory, and for which freezing capacity is below 300 tons per day