Canada Confirms Order Designating Four Chemicals as CEPA Toxic

Canada has published an "Order Adding Toxic Substances to Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999." The order confirms the CEPA toxic designation of four chemicals, thus allowing for Canada to regulate them.  The four chemicals are:

• Propane, 2-nitro- (Chemical Abstracts Service [CAS] (see footnote 2) Registry No. 79-46-9), hereafter referred to as “2-nitropropane”; 

• Benzene, 1-methyl-2-nitro- (CAS No. 88-72-2), hereafter referred to as “2-nitrotoluene”;

• Phenol, 2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-(1-methylpropyl)- (CAS No. 17540-75-9), hereafter referred to as “DTBSBP”; and

• Methylium, [4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]bis[4-(ethylamino)-3-methylphenyl]-, acetate (CAS No. 72102-55-7), hereafter referred to as “MAPBAP acetate.”

Draft regulations have been proposed for at least one of the chemicals.  According to the Canada Gazette:

The Order adds the four above-mentioned substances to Schedule 1 to CEPA 1999, thereby allowing the Ministers to meet their obligation to publish proposed regulations or other instruments no later than July 31, 2012, and finalize them no later than January 31, 2014. Developing an implementation plan or a compliance strategy or establishing service standards are not considered necessary if no specific risk management proposals are made. An appropriate assessment of implementation, compliance and enforcement will be undertaken during the development of proposed regulations or control instrument(s) respecting preventive or control actions for these substances.  

More information can be found in the Canada Gazette notice.

Canada to Ban Four Categories of Chemicals

Canada issued a proposed regulation in the Canada Gazette on July 23, 2011 designed to essentially ban four groups of chemicals.  According to the proposal, the four chemicals are Benzenamine, N-phenyl-, reaction products with styrene and 2,4,4-trimethylpentene (BNST), short-chain chlorinated alkanes, polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) and tributyltins (TBTs) for non-pesticidal uses.  All four were assessed in accordance with the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999 (CEPA), which concluded that all four may be harmful to the environment.  Health Canada determined that short-chain chlorinated alkanes also constitute a danger in Canada to human life or health. 

Interestingly, three of the chemical classes are already no longer manufactured or used in Canada.  So the main impact will be on the ban of BNST, which is an antioxidant additive in vehicle engine oils and industrial lubricants.  Under the regulations, there would be a two-year transition period in which BNST could still be used for specific uses so that industry has time to conduct research to find alternatives.  The transition period would also allow manufacturers to gain product performance certification for any product modifications using BNST subsitutes.

For all four chemical classes Environment Canada and Health Canada believe risk management measures are necessary to prevent harm to the environment and human health.  Also, they determined that all four "meet the criteria for persistence and bioaccumulation potential as set out in the Persistence and Bioaccumulation Regulations."

The regulations as proposed would also modify existing restrictions on hexachlorobenezene (HCB), which is commonly found as an impurity in chlorinated solvents and other manufactured products.  HCB would be moved from Part 2 to Part 1 of the schedule of toxic substances, which would put it on a track for full banning.

The public may provide comment on the draft regulations until October 6, 2011.  More information is available in the Canada Gazette online.

Canada Lists 4 Chemicals to its Schedule 1 List of Toxic Substances

While the US struggles with what to do to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Europe has been busy with the first registration phase of it's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) program and Canada is well into its Chemical Management Plan evaluating their Inventory of existing chemicals.  As part of that process Canada recently proposed to add four additional chemicals its Schedule 1 "list of toxic substances" under CEPA (the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999).   

The four substances are:

Vanadium pentoxide: A naturally occurring substance in the environment, "used primarily in Canada in the manufacture of ferrovanadium and as a catalyst in the production of sulphuric acid." According to Environment Canada, "vanadium pentoxide is released to air, to water and to land, mainly through combustion of fossil fuels and wood fuels from industrial activities."  It "was identified as a high priority for assessment because of its classification as a carcinogen by national and international agencies."

Potassium bromate: A man-made substance "used primarily in Canada in industrial and commercial applications," including "as an oxidizing reagent in laboratories, in the dying of textiles, and in permanent wave neutralizing solutions in the cosmetics industry."  While it appears there is limited current reporting of use in Canada, and no reported consumer uses, the substance was listed "based principally on the weight-of-evidence assessment or classification from international or other national agencies..., the critical effect of exposure...is carcinogenicity," as well as reports of genotoxicity and "a variety of non-cancer effects."

TGOPE: A thankfully brief acronym for a long chemical name, TGOPE "is a man-made component of epoxy resin used as an adhesive or binding agent" used primarily "in the manufacture of paints, coatings designed for industrial use and certain consumer epoxy-patch adhesives." Exposure is expected to be minimal because it is it seems to have limited current manufacture in Canada (but is imported) and has limited consumer uses (mostly epoxy adhesives).  Health effects assessments have not been identified, but "in vitro experiments and weight-of-evidence assessment or classification from several other analogues...show that TGOPE may cause cancer."

Methyl eugenol: Mainly "a naturally occurring organic substance in the essential oils of several plant species," used primarily "as flavour ingredients in food and beverages and as fragrance ingredients and emollients in personal care, cosmetics and other household products." According to the Canadian assessment, "the substance may also be produced synthetically."  Exposure is "mainly from its naturally occurring presence in food and beverages with smaller contributions from the use of personal care products and citronella-based personal insect repellents."  Canada has determined "that methyl eugenol may cause cancer," and may also "be genotoxic in a range of experimental studies...Therefore, it cannot be precluded that the substance may have interacted with the genetic material."

More information on these four substances can be found here.  In addition to these four listed, there were 13 substances from "Batch 9" that were not found to meet the criteria for listing.  These can be seen here.