Canada issues listings of high-priority chemicals

11 December 2006 19:38  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Canada’s government provided on Monday listings of chemicals it will prioritise as it proceeds to tighten up the regulation and risk assessment of chemicals.

 

Under its Chemicals Management Plan, as announced last Friday, the federal government will start publishing next year groups of 15-30 substance every three months asking industry and other stakeholders to comment on the substances’ impacts.

 

Government scientists will review the information and authorities will then decide on what further actions to take.

 

The government said it is prioritising some 200 chemicals and substances which are potentially harmful to human health or the environment. 

 

It highlighted the following 13 chemicals and substance as being of particular interest: 2-butoxyethanol, 2-methoxyethanol, bisphenol A, lead, lindane, mercury, pentachlorobenzene, perfluorinated carboxylic acids and their precursors, including fluorotelomers, perfluorooctane sulfonate or perfluorooctanyl sulfonate, phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers,  polychlorinated biphenyls and tetrachlorobenzenes.

 

The first batch, to be published in early 2007, includes among other substance peroxide, benzene and naphthalene.  The second batch includes phenol, acetic acid.

 

The overall objective of the plan is broadly similar to the European Union’s Europe's Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) initiative.

 

Further information on the Canadian plan is available on: http://www.chemicalsubstanceschimiques.gc.ca/en/.

 

In a related development on Monday, more than 700 Canadian scientists and doctors said in an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that his plan did not go far enough.

 

They called for a number of amendments to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), including the incorporation of the precautionary approach to shift the onus on industry to show that products are safe.

 

Under the current system, the onus is on the government to prove that a substance is harmful before regulatory action is taken.

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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