Canadian Environmental Protection Act CEPA

Canadian Electrolytic Zinc, Ltd., 26 564 Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 13 542 23 120-121 Canadian nuclear power program, 17 585 Cancer. See also Breast cancer ... 

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) of 30 June 1988 requires new chemical substances to be notified before manufacture or import. The Canadian notifrcation scheme is scheduled to come into effect in January 1994. Until then, chemicals can be manufactured or imported into Canada without notification. The New Substances Notifrcation Regulations have been published in the Canada Gazette for final public consultation before being finalised and brought into force. Guidelines for the Notification and Testing of New Substances Chemicals and Polymers are also now available [32]. 

It is beyond the scope of this publication to delve completely into the nuances of detailed quantitative risk assessments, but a few typical considerations can be presented. As an example, we will consider the risk assessment for ethylene glycol recently carried out by Health Canada (HC) in its second Priority Substance Listing (PSL2) assessment for the chemical, as required under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) of 1999. Ethylene glycol represents an interesting example because humans and the environment can potentially be exposed due to its common use as the active component of anti-freeze and as a component of house paints. 

In addition to NATES, Environment Canada also maintains a national database called the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). It is designed to collect and make available to the public, on a yearly basis, comprehensive national data on releases to air, water, and land, transfers in waste, and ongoing emissions of specified substances. Under the authority of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), owners or operators of facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use one or more of the 176 specified substances under prescribed conditions are required to report to the NPRI. The NPRI reports for the years 1994 and 1995 can be found on the Environment Canada website (http //www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/npri/). 

One other approach that was considered was ranking chemicals by groups according to their physical and chemical properties. A number of properties were selected, for example, LD50, bioaccumulation, and persistence as the main criteria for toxicity to the environment and humans. Substances were then classified according to the range they fell within (Ministers Advisory Panel, 1995). This approach was used for the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) assessments. For example, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, inorganic cadmium compounds, benzidine, trichloroethylene, and a host of others were concluded to be toxic. Others, such as chlorobenzene, toluenes, xylenes, and dibutyl pthalate, were concluded to be nontoxic. Others, such as aniline, styrene, crankcase oils, and pentachlorobenzene, do not have sufficient information for classification. 

The mandate to keep the environment free of toxic chemicals falls under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), which is administered by both Environment Canada and Health Canada. Even though MTBE has been assessed as nontoxic under the CEPA Priority Substances List, its effects on humans are still controversial (Environment Canada and Health Canada, 1992). Even though many investigators have found that MTBE does not pose a substantial health risk to humans, the effects of MTBE and other oxygenates are still relatively unknown (Duffy et al., 1992 Silvak and Murphy, 1991 ATSDR, 1996). No real studies have been done on the effects of this substance on human health. 

CEPA 2000—Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) Privily Substance List (2000)... 

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) requires thar EC review the entire Canadian chemical inventory, the Domestic Substances list (DSL), for the purpose of identifying those substances which are toxic pursuant to CEPA. This analysis requires EC to determine which chemicals on the DSL are persistent and either bioaccumulative or inherently toxic. 

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) was among the first laws to attempt to define and regulate toxic chemicals. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA 1999) and the European Union s directive on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals in 2007 (REACH) represent more recent efforts to manage chemical risk. 

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