From: Health Canada

Health Canada is advising Canadians not to buy an unregistered, highly toxic pesticide product being imported from China and sold in various retail outlets as “insecticide chalk.” The product is sold under names such as “Miraculous Insecticide Chalk,” “Insecticide Chalk,” and “Cockroach Chalk.”

Insecticide chalk is not registered for use in Canada. Samples tested contain deltamethrin, a pesticide that can cause serious health effects when used inappropriately. Children are especially at risk from insecticide chalk because they can easily mistake the product for blackboard or sidewalk chalk and play with it or put it in their mouths.

Overexposure to some chemicals found in insecticidal chalk can cause vomiting, stomach pains, convulsions, tremors and loss of consciousness. Serious allergic reactions are also possible.

Click on the above link for more information on this warning.

From: NEWS from CPSC

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the signing of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Hong Kong and Australia to improve product safety.

The vision for improvements in the safety of consumer products extends from Asia to Australia to America. The MOUs with Australia and Hong Kong put formal structures into place for information sharing about recalled products, consumer product regulations, product testing requirements and product safety campaigns. The MOUs also allow regulators to work more easily toward compatible product safety standards.

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum signed both MOUs with product safety regulators during visits to Hong Kong and Sydney to discuss the need for global improvements in consumer product safety.

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From: CBC News

Health Canada has no plans to follow the lead of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and open an office in China…The CPSA announced Monday it was opening an office in China, the first outside the U.S., in a bid to reduce the flow of dangerous products reaching the American market.

In a statement to CBC News, Health Canada said none of its officials or inspectors have a physical presence in China. It said any inspections or investigations are carried out by China’s office of quality supervision and inspection.

Any products imported to Canada from China are expected to comply with the Hazardous Products Act. It’s the responsibility of importers, retailers and advertisers to ensure that products coming from offshore comply with Canadian laws.

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From OHS Online:

The 20th meeting of the UNECE Sub-Committee of Experts on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, also known as GHS, will take place Dec. 7-9, 2010, in Geneva…

Dec. 1, 2010, is also significant because it is the first of two phase-in implementation deadlines for REACH and the date when companies in the European Union must apply CLP, the new European Regulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging, to chemical substances. A second deadline in June 2015 is set for applying CLP to chemical mixtures. The CLP rule sets a new system in place throughout the European Union for classifying and labeling chemicals that is based on GHS.

At the Geneva meeting, Australia is scheduled to present a final report summarizing the GHS classification lists maintained by each country, their plans for lists to support GHS implementation, how various sectors in different countries use classification lists now, and what future needs there are for such lists.

The sub-committee’s June 30-July 2, 2010, meeting showed how GHS implementation is advancing around the world. It became mandatory for chemical substances in the Republic of Korea on July 1, 2010, and will be mandatory for mixtures there on July 1, 2013. Switzerland allowed consumer products classified and labeled in accordance with GHS to be sold as of July 1, 2010, but its reclassification of substances will not be in force until December 2012. Serbia adopted a law implementing GHS on June 29, 2010, that sets a transition period for CLP implementation ending Sept. 1, 2011, for substances and June 1, 2015, for mixtures. Two standards implementing GHS in China took effect May 1, 2010, and a system for coordinating GHS implementation by government and industry is being developed there. Australia expects to release a GHS implementation regulation for public comment in September 2010, and in the United States, OSHA is now drafting its Hazard Communication final rule implementing GHS.

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Relevant Nexreg Compliance Links: REACH compliance, GHS SDS authoring, SDS authoring

From the Malaysian Star:

THE annual meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) was held in Ottawa during the first week of May. Hosted by the government of Canada, the 36th meeting of CCFL was attended by close to 300 delegates representing 72 member countries, one Member Organization, European Community and 27 international organisations…

After almost 50 years, the Programme has established the Codex Alimentarius (Latin, meaning food law or food code). This is a collection of standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations that serve to provide guidance to governments for their respective national food control systems. It aims to achieve international harmonisation in food quality and safety requirements.

More than 200 specific commodity standards for individual foods or groups of foods have been developed. In addition, a number of horizontal standards have been published to cover general topics, including food labelling, nutrition and foods for special dietary uses, food additives, contaminants and methods of analysis and sampling…

A full report of the 36th Session of CCFL can be obtained from www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp in the next few weeks.

More information can be found by clicking on the links.

A new food safety law may be coming to China. China Daily explains:

The draft food safety law submitted to China’s top legislature for first review Wednesday proposes the establishment of a State-level food safety risk evaluation committee…

The draft law, to replace the existing Food Hygiene Law, also proposes a labeling system making food producers responsible for statements about ingredients, additives, expiration dates and functions on user manuals and packages. A recall system and a food safety information release system are also proposed.

In addition, the draft law seeks to impose strict examinations on food imports and exports…

“We expect the next government, to be in power next March, to make some concrete changes in reforming the system.”

Click on the above link for the full article.