On October 23, 2017, the Parliament of Queensland passed the Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2017. The amendment Act amends the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act), Electrical Safety Act 2002 (ES Act) and the Safety in Recreational Water Activities Act 2011 (SRWA Act) to implement key recommendations of the Best Practice Review of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. The amendments introduce the offense of industrial manslaughter and provide the definition of, exceptions to and penalties for, the offense. In addition, other amendments update obligations to train health and safety representatives and appoint work health and safety officers, among many other things. The goal of these amendments is to improve the health and safety of employees in the workplace.
 
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/asmade/act-2017-038

The Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs for the United Kingdom has opened a consultation period seeking views on proposed amendments to the 2013 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations, including “Open Scope” requirements. The consultation opened on October 20, 2017 and closed on December 8, 2017 at 11:45pm.
 
The Department wants to know what interested parties and stakeholders think about plans to amend the UK’s 2013 regulations for WEEE. The proposed changes would include:
 

• Introducing “Open Scope” requirements, which extend the regulations to all electrical and electronic equipment unless specifically exempt;
• Making membership to the Producer Balancing Scheme compulsory; and
• Changing how producer fees are allocated in the UK.

 
The Department also hopes to learn what interested parties and stakeholders think of the 2013 WEEE Regulations. Specifically, how have they improved the environment and whether the improvement is proportionate to the cost to businesses. The information obtained from the consultation will be used to inform the Post Implementation Review in 2018.

​https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-amending-the-2013-uk-regulations

From September 15, 2017 to October 13, 2017, the European Commission held a consultation on the definition of nanomaterial. The purpose of the consultation was to revise the Commission’s recommendation on the definition of nanomaterials, which was defined in 2011 as substances with 50% of particles or more between 1nm-100nm. The original revision deadline was December 2014, but was pushed back while the Commission waited for a report from the Joint Research Centre. The report was published in July 2015 and included technical and scientific recommendations to be taken into account for the review.
 
Following the consultation, the draft changes to the recommendation will be subject to another consultation period that will last 12 weeks. During this second consultation period, major relevant stakeholder groups, including Competent Authorities Sub-Group on Nanomaterials (CASG-Nano) members, will participate. 

The European Commission (EC) has opened a comment period for Amendment of the Annexes to Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) to address nanoforms of substances. The Department administering the comment period is the Directorate-General for Environment. The comment period opened on October 9, 2017 and closed on November 6, 2017. Interested stakeholders may view the draft regulation and propose annex amendments on the EC’s website. Comments may be submitted online and will be published on the site. The EC will review submissions and publish a summary record of the discussion on the comitology register.