Government Of Canada Releases Draft Risk Assessments For Substances Included In Batch 5 Of The Chemical Management Plan

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 23 Feb 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, and Canada's Environment Minister, the Honourable Jim Prentice, announced the release of the draft screening assessments and risk management scope documents for 19 chemical substances included in Batch 5 of the Chemicals Management Plan.

"The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring the safe management of chemical substances, which is why we launched the Chemicals Management Plan in 2006," said Minister Aglukkaq. "With the release of the draft risk assessments for these 19 substances, we are taking another important step to further protect the health of Canadians." "We are working hard to meet the timelines we laid out for addressing chemical substances," said Minister Prentice. "We are committed to studying these substances and gathering the best information available to ensure that we deal with any risks they pose responsibly."

Of the 19 substances included in Batch 5, two substances are proposed to be of concern to human health (Acrylamide and TCEP (Tris(2-chloroethyl)) phosphate). Current information indicates that the remaining 17 substances are of no concern to human health or the environment.

Of these remaining 17 substances, one is no longer used in Canada (Disperse Orange 5) and one is used primarily as a pesticide (Chloroacetamide) and this use will be discontinued later this year. Significant New Activity provisions are being proposed to manage the risks associated with these two substances. These provisions will prevent these substances from being used in the future without undergoing a new series of assessments.

Notices containing summaries of the draft screening assessment reports will be published in Canada Gazette, Part I on February 21, 2009. The complete draft screening assessments as well as risk management documents for all Batch 5 substances can be found on the Chemicals Management Plan website. Interested parties can submit comments on these documents until April 22, 2009.

The Government of Canada is committed to meeting the five-year timeline that was announced in 2006 for completion of work under the Chemicals Management Plan. The original sequence of batches outlined for Challenge substances will be continued and the regular spacing between releases of information will also continue to allow stakeholders enough time to review and analyze the information. All associated dates will be updated on the website.

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