Regulations Amending the Hazardous Products Regulations (GHS, Seventh Revised Edition) in Canada
By: Kirsten Alcock, Manager of Product Safety, email
The Regulations Amending the Hazardous Products Regulations (GHS, Seventh Revised Edition) were published in the Canada Gazette, Part I on December 19, 2020.
As per the information from Health Canada, adopting the seventh revised edition of the GHS would provide increased worker health and safety benefits and worker protections. Several issues were presented to Health Canada since the Hazardous Products Regulations came into force in February 2015. Health Canada is proposing to amend the existing Hazardous Products Regulations to align with the seventh revised edition of the GHS with hopes to provide greater clarity or additional precision regarding certain specific provisions, amend specific provisions to better reflect their original intent, and address administrative updates
The amendments to the 7th edition include and are not limited to:
- Modifications to definitions
- Adoption of a new hazard category for non-flammable aerosols and new subcategories for Flammable Gases.
- New test procedures for Oxidizing Solids will also be available for those of you who currently sell these types of products.
- Changes to Schedule 1, which refers to SDS requirements, will be amended. Section 9 in particular will receive an overhaul and new subtitles are required.
For more detailed information on the exact changes they plan on implementing, please see the link above. The biggest change will be to aerosols, so if these are the types of products you make, the biggest changes will be seen here. There are some smaller changes throughout that may impact your industry so be sure to read it over in detail and if you have questions or comments, now is your time to speak up.
Further information from Health Canada indicates potential dates:
- The amendments to the Hazardous Products Regulations would come into force at the beginning of 2021, with a two-year transition period
- Suppliers would have two years (spanning 2021 and 2022) to bring product classifications, safety data sheets, and labels into compliance with the proposed amendments
- Official Language Requirements for Canada will not be changing. Canada is bilingual and all SDSs and GHS Labels must be in Canadian English and Canadian French
- Employers would begin to train production workers and managers in 2021 and this would continue until the end of 2022
Stakeholders may make representations concerning the proposed Regulations, within 70 days after their date of publication in the Canada Gazette, Part 1. All submissions must cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, the date of publication (December 19, 2020), and be addressed to:
Lynn Berndt-Weis
Director, Workplace Hazardous Materials Bureau
Consumer and Hazardous Products Safety Directorate
Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch
Health Canada
Address Locator: 4908B, 269 Laurier Ave. West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9
Email: hc.whmis-simdut.sc@canada.ca
Health Canada welcomes your submissions by February 27, 2021.
We are still pending information from OSHA at this point in time on the United States moving to version 7 as well. As soon as we hear something, we will let you know.
If you have questions concerning the current regulations in force within Canada, please contact:
Contact:
Dell Tech
Kirsten Alcock, B.Sc. (Hons)
Manager, Product Safety Group
519-858-5074
kirsten@delltech.com
Dell Tech has provided professional, confidential consulting services to the chemical specialty
industry in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia for the last 40 years.
Contact us today for more information.
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