Dr. Mike Moffatt, Ph.D. Director of Communications, Nexreg Compliance inc. Regulatory International Influences Canada releases Hazardous Products Regulations guide… Companies around the world are scrambling to have their workplace labels and safety data sheets (SDS) compliant for the Canadian market. The deadline for compliance is May 31, 2017; Nexreg is already noticing an increase in calls from companies worried they will miss the deadline for compliance. In December, the Canadian government helpfully released the second half of its promised Technical Guidance on the Requirements of the Hazardous Products Act & Hazardous Products Regulations, which details the responsibilities of chemical manufacturers and importers into Canada. Less helpfully, as of January 2017, the document can only be obtained through e-mailing this not-very-easy-to-remember address: WHMIS_ Technical_Guidance-SIMDUT_Guide_Technique@hc-sc. gc.ca. Alternatively, I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of the document at info@nexreg.com. With a length of 542 pages, the guidance document is comprehensive but far from an easy read. There are two big items worth highlighting. 1) Confidential business information Where Nexreg believes companies most likely to get themselves into trouble is in assuming that Canada’s Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR) treats confidential business information (CBI) the same way as the U.S.’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). The guidance document provides details about the differences between the two: In Canada, the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act (HMIRA) sets out a process by which requests to protect CBI are filed with Health Canada for approval. These requests must be filed before market access, and involve a post-market review of the compliance status of the product’s safety data sheets (SDS) and label, as well as a decision on the validity of the claim.” The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) generally allows the same pieces of information to be protected as CBI as is allowed by the Hazardous Products Act (HPA) and its associated regulations. However, the mechanism by which CBI can be protected is very different. Under the HCS, there is no requirement to make a submission to OSHA for permission to protect a particular piece of CBI. In the U.S., it is possible to mask the chemical name and/or concentration range of an ingredient on the supplier’s SDS. They may need to prove at a later date that the information is truly confidential, but they do not need to seek permission first from a government agency. The situation is much different in Canada, where all hazardous ingredients must be listed on the SDS, along with exact percentage ranges. We foresee this causing two problems for U.S. manufacturers importing products into Canada: 1. They may lack awareness of the rules and have products denied entry into Canada because it lacks the necessary information. 2. Companies may comply with the Canadian rules and list both ingredient names and exact concentrations on their Canadian SDS. However, in so doing, they can no longer claim on their U.S. documents that this information is “confidential” since Canadian SDS are widely available. We are recommending to all of our clients that, if ingredient disclosure is a concern, they file with the Canadian government immediately. Doing so allows a company to immediately mask this information on their documents, as explained by the Guidance Document: For products with multiple ingredients (i.e., a mixture that is a hazardous product), the ingredients and/or the concentrations of one or more ingredients may be considered confidential business information. Once a temporary claim exemption is granted by 32 Spray March 2017
Spray March 2017
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