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Environment and Health Canada have launched the third phase of their Chemicals Management Plan (CMP). This will address the remaining 1,550 substances of the 4,300 identified on Canada’s Domestic Substance List (DSL) as requiring health and ecological assessment.

The government will conduct CMP3 assessments between 2016 and 2020.

Consistent with the stated plan to adopt an Echa-modelled workplan approach, the government has published a 2-year rolling risk management activities and engagement schedule, and a risk assessment publication plan.

These provide a timetable, organised by quarter, for when specific substances will be addressed. It will be updated regularly.

Industry should take note of substances of interest and the start date for assessments, says Christine Norman, director of Health Canada’s existing substances risk assessment bureau. This is so they can “engage the government with information about studies they would like considered, before the [substance assessment] start date”.

According to resources supplementing the CMP3 launch, the government is not planning a systematic stakeholder outreach for all assessments.

1,550 priority substances

The list of 1,550 substances to be assessed have been assigned categories and proposed groupings. Also included are the government’s anticipated approach for their ecological and human health assessment, with estimated timelines for starting assessments and for draft publications.

Although substances could be considered in different group assessments (for example, where a substance contains multiple moieties of concern), the list – for simplicity – proposes a single group per substance.

Ms Norman told Chemical Watch that the government intends to increase the use of new approaches and methods, such as high-throughput screening, to support proposed conclusions in CMP3. The CMP science committee will continue to play its role in ensuring a strong science foundation for decision making.

Annual prioritisation

The government has also published the results of a 2015 "first run" of a review strategy for prioritising additional substances. This has identified 28 substances for future risk assessment.

The annual process aims to use new scientific knowledge, and increased collaboration with other regulatory and international agencies, in identifying new risk assessment priorities.

According to the 2015 results report, the scope of the first review "was primarily focused on identifying new hazard and/or exposure information for substances that are on Canada’s [DSL] which were not recently, currently, or already scheduled to be assessed under the CMP." Substances not on the DSL were also considered, under certain circumstances.

Of the 2,600 substances evaluated in 2015, approximately 10% were flagged up for further work.

There are the 28 risk assessment candidates, 27 substances where ongoing international regulatory action will inform Canada's future action, and 194 substances requiring more data.

Sylvia Palmer