From Health Canada:

The purpose of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act is to protect the health and safety of Canadians by addressing or preventing dangers posed by consumer products.

The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act heightens industry’s responsibility to ensure that they are not marketing potentially dangerous consumer products.

The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, which came into force on June 20, 2011, replaces Part I of the Hazardous Products Act and introduces a new regulatory regime in Canada.

The Act will help reduce the number of unsafe or potentially unsafe consumer products on the Canadian market by:

• prohibiting the manufacture, importation, advertisement or sale of any consumer products that pose an unreasonable danger to human health or safety;
• requiring industry to report when they know about a serious incident, or death, related to their product to provide government with timely information about important product safety issues;
• requiring manufacturers or importers to provide test/study results on products when asked;
• authorizing Health Canada to order the recall of unreasonably dangerous consumer products;
• making it an offense to package or label consumer products that make false or deceptive health or safety claims;
• requiring companies to retain documents to help trace products throughout the supply chain; and
• raising fines and penalties for non-compliance from one million dollars to up to five million dollars for serious offenses.

Click on the above link for highlights of this new regulation.

From Health Canada: this recall involves Pourable NAPAfire and FIREGEL Gel Fuel bottles and jugs distributed by Design Home Gift and Paper Inc. of Richmond Hill, Ontario.

The product is a clear, pourable gel fuel packaged in clear 947 ml (one-quart) plastic bottles and 3.785 L (one-gallon) plastic jugs and sold in non-scented and citronella scents. The fuel is poured into a stainless steel cup in the centre of firepots or other decorative lighting devices and then ignited.

The pourable gel fuel can ignite unexpectedly and splatter onto people and objects nearby when it is poured into a firepot that is still burning. This hazard can occur if the consumer does not see the flame or is not aware that the firepot is still ignited. Fuel gel that splatters and ignites can pose fire and burn risks to consumers.

In Canada, the stainless steel cup in the centre of firepots lacks the required precautionary labelling.

The US distributor of the product, Napa Home & Garden Inc. is aware of 37 reports of incidents in the US, including 23 burn injuries to consumers.

Neither Health Canada nor the Canadian distributor, Design Home Gift and Paper Inc., have received any reports of incidents in Canada.

We will keep you informed about other product recalls by Health Canada.

From MSNBC:

The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) welcomed the coming into force of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), which modernizes and strengthens Canada’s product safety laws.

“We congratulate the Government of Canada for their commitment to strengthening Canada’s consumer product safety legislation and limiting risk to the health and safety of Canadians,” said Fire Chief Rob Simonds, President of the CAFC.

“Consumer product safety problems fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable members of society, including the young, the disabled and seniors. We want to thank the Minister of Health, the Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, and her department for their efforts and leadership in bringing this legislation into force,” added Chief Simonds.

A significant proportion of fire department calls in Canada are in response to unsafe products in Canadian homes. It is firefighters who are often the first emergency responders on the scene to help Canadians who have been injured by unsafe consumer products or whose property has been damaged by such products.

Follow the above link for the complete article.

From the Malay Mail:

SHOPS have begun to remove remaining stocks of polycarbonate infant milk bottles containing the banned chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) before such bottles are outlawed in eight months time.

This comes after Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai announcement yesterday that such milk bottles would no longer be allowed for sale from next March as it could endanger infants.

Countries which have already banned this chemical in milk bottles include Australia, Denmark, France, Germany and New Zealand. Earlier this month, the European Union (EU) announced an immediate ban in all EU member countries.

“We only heard of the BPA issue last month via the Internet,” said Norazlinati Abu Bakar, 38, who works at a baby shop.

“Baby milk bottles numbered 06 have BPA while 04 and 05 bottles don’t.”

She said bottles with BPA were retailed at RM17.90 and those without are priced higher at RM35.90. The brands available include Advent, Breastflow, Bibi and Dr Brown.

“After about six months of usage, BPA bottles eventually turn yellow as the chemicals start to seep. It turns yellow within two to three months if the bottles are heated in boiled water,” Norazlinati said, adding her employer has stopped ordering BPA bottles.

Enforcement of the ban here will be in stages and the baby milk bottle-making industry in this country have to comply by making changes to their production as well as the purchase of new raw materials.

The move is in line with the recent recommendations by the World Health Organisation.

We will keep you informed of any further regulatory changes related to BPA products.

From environmentalleader.com:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched two databases that it says will improve decisions about chemical safety, including at the agency itself.

The two public sites, the Toxicity Forecaster database(ToxCastDB) and a database of chemical exposure studies(ExpoCastDB), will be connected through EPA’s Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR), an online data warehouse that collects data on over 500,000 chemicals from over 500 public sources.

The connection is important, the EPA says, because both exposure data and toxicity data are required when considering potential risks posed by chemicals, and the link will better inform the agency’s own decisions about chemical safety.

“Chemical safety is a major priority of EPA and its research,” said Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “These databases provide the public access to chemical information, data and results that we can use to make better-informed and timelier decisions about chemicals to better protect people’s health.”

Users of ToxCastDB can search and download data from over 500 rapid chemical tests conducted on more than 300 environmental chemicals. ToxCast predicts the potential toxicity of chemicals and, the EPA says, provides a cost-effective approach to prioritizing which chemicals of the thousands in use require further testing.

Staff working on the database are currently screening 700 additional chemicals, and the data for those substances will be available in 2012.

Click the links above for more information.

From kingstonthisweek.com:

A new law designed to protect consumers could have the opposite effect on registered charities whose bottom line depends on donations.

Under the new Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, which comes into effect June 20, anyone who sells consumer products for commercial purposes must record the name and address of the person from whom they obtained the consumer product. This is to enable Health Canada to track unsafe products in the event of recall or other corrective action.

However, for charity thrift stores that receive donated items from unknown sources, it would be impossible to comply with this requirement of the Act.

In fact, says one Kingston thrift store manager, “It would put us out of business.”

Now, after hearing from charitable organizations across the country, Health Canada is considering exemptions for retailers who sell donated products, provided the donation is from a person other than a manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer.

Gary Holub, a Media Relations Officer with Health Canada, provided clarification by email. “Health Canada understands that retailers of donated products face a unique set of circumstances,” he wrote. “For example, these businesses receive donated items from individuals. These donations may be dropped off in off hours, or donors may be anonymous. Even when the donors can be identified, these individuals are not required to record where and when they bought the sweater, toy, or table they might now be about to donate. Therefore, the traceability chain ends at the individual donor, not at an importer or manufacturer.

“In addition, many second-hand items have had the packaging, instructions or labelling removed. Without this identifying information, these businesses may not have the necessary records (i.e., serial number, lot number, manufacturer, etc.) to track the product up the supply chain.

“Therefore, Health Canada has determined that documents prepared under these particular circumstances would do little to trace products back through the supply chain in order to facilitate corrective actions, including product recalls, and so would not be useful in addressing or preventing dangers to the health or safety of Canadians.”

Holub made it clear that thrift stores and other businesses that sell donated items would still be subject to all of the other requirements of the Act and would still be subject to routine inspections. Health Canada is in the process of doubling the number of product safety inspectors to 90 to ensure compliance.

We will keep you informed of any new exemptions to the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act.

From euractiv.com:

Restrictions on tobacco smoke and the Asbestos scandal have put indoor air quality under the spotlight in the recent past, resulting in tough policies to stop damage to human health. While tobacco continues to be the biggest health culprit, nowadays attention is also turning to “chemical cocktails,” toxic fumes from heating and cooking, and damp and mould caused by poor ventilation.

A recent EU-funded research project called Airmex – European Indoor Air Monitoring and Exposure Assessment – found that levels of many harmful air pollutants are in fact greater indoors than outdoors.

In a mid-term review of its Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010, the Commission mentioned tobacco control measures among the main achievements of addressing indoor air quality at EU level. Others included an opinion on air fresheners delivered by the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER).

The EU executive said it now wanted to take the fight against air pollution to the next level by tackling indoor air quality. In a statement annexed to the 2008 air quality directive, the Commission announced it would consider measures to reduce emissions from domestic boilers and water heaters, as well as those emitted by the solvent content of paints, varnishes and vehicle-refinishing products.

Brussels seems to have lost appetite for big environmental initiatives. In response to queries from EurActiv, a Commission spokesperson said indoor air quality was not a legal competence of the European Union and that responsibility fell mainly on the member states.

In its mid-term review of the Environment and Health Action Plan, the EU executive said future actions on indoor air quality “will focus on information to the public and professionals, exchange of best practices at national and local level and on coordination of ongoing policies linked to indoor air quality”.

We will keep you informed of any regulatory changes pertaining to indoor air quality.

From McClatchy Newspapers- U.S. opens new product safety lab:

The opening of a start-of-the-art testing lab Monday for the chief federal consumer protection agency will give Washington more muscle in preventing Americans from buying and using unsafe products.

Inez Tenenbaum, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the new center outside Washington will enable her agency to do better, faster and cheaper tests of the products its inspectors confiscate at the nation’s ports and in unannounced retail store sweeps.

“This is a moment many years in the making,” Tenenbaum told reporters outside the lab in a Maryland suburb 25 miles north of the nation’s capital. “This brand new testing facility behind me is an investment in the safety of American families.”

The 32,000-sqare-foot center is 2 1/2 times bigger than the aging, leaking lab the CPSC had used for decades, with a limited testing capacity that required the agency to hire private firms to evaluate some products.

The new center has 75 engineers and other scientists, almost double the number who worked at the CPSC’s previous lab at a nearby site that was used as an Army missile radar site until 1975.

“Every test they run, every result they record, every hazard they detect, is about one thing in the end — keeping children and consumers safe,” Tenenbaum said.

The center has nine labs to run specialized tests on imported and domestic goods that kill or maim hundreds of Americans a year, from toys and other children’s products to pools and spas, bike helmets and electronics.

Congress increased the commission’s power in 2008 when it passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act after a wave of high-profile recalls of mainly Chinese-made toys with high levels of lead.

The opening of a start-of-the-art testing lab Monday for the chief federal consumer protection agency will give Washington more muscle in preventing Americans from buying and using unsafe products.

Click the link above for more information.

From: ECHA

The seven new substances identified as SVHCs are: 2-ethoxyethylacetate, strontium chromate, 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, di-C7-11 branched and linear alkyl esters (DHNUP), hydrazine, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, 1,2,3-trichloropropane, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, di-C6-8-branched alkyl esters, C7-rich (DIHP). These substances are either carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR) substances. DHNUP and DIHP will complement the Candidate List with two additional phthalates.

In addition, as a result of the procedure for identification as SVHC a new identification basis (toxic for reproduction) will be added for cobaltdichloride that is already on the Candidate List because of its carcinogenic hazards.

The Candidate List will be updated soon as the seven new substances and the “toxic for reproduction” will be added as the basis for identification as an SVHC for cobaltdichloride .

Follow the above link for access to the draft agenda of the 18th Memeber State Committee meeting or the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern for authorisation.

We will keep you updated on any additional changes to the Candidate List.

From: Bureau Veritas Group

On 20 May 2011, the European Commission issued a regulation (EU 494/2011) amending the restrictions on cadmium under Annex XVII of REACH regulation (EC) No.1907/2006. This regulation restricts cadmium in jewellery, brazing sticks and all plastic materials and comes into force on 10 December 2011 as per the Corrigendum of 21 May 2011.

Annex XVII of the REACH regulation (EC 1907/2006) already contains several restrictions on cadmium in mixtures and articles. Now, these restrictions have been extended to jewellery, brazing sticks and all plastic materials with a limit of 100 mg/kg. For the recycling of PVC in construction products, the new legislation allows the re-use of recovered PVC containing low levels (0,1%) of cadmium.

Click on the above link for highlights of this new regulation.