Ottawa releases new list of chemicals it will prioritize for risk assessments

The federal government has released a proposed list of more than 30 chemicals and groups of substances Canadians encounter daily that it wants to prioritize for risk assessments.

The announcement is part of a batch of measures Health Canada and Environment Canada are introducing as they revamp the country’s cornerstone environmental legislation.

In 2023, Parliament passed updates to the decades-old Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). The act is one of the country’s key environmental laws. It gives the federal government a wide range of powers to address pollution contaminating air, water and land.

On Friday, the government released a proposed framework indicating which chemicals it will prioritize for assessment.

Ahead of the public release of the list, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday that when CEPA was first introduced in 1999, just 23,000 chemical substances in use in Canada fell under its regulatory regime.

“Today, up to 10 million new chemical compounds are produced every year. Our science must keep pace with global chemical markets,” he said.

Among the chemicals and substances on the federal government’s priority list are styrene (used to make various plastic products) and octocrylene, which is found in sunscreen.

The changes to CEPA also mean the federal government now recognizes it needs to pay particular attention to communities or jobs that are disproportionately affected by pollution.

The proposed priorities list targets chemicals used by some of those groups. Organic flame retardant, which firefighters often use, is on the list.

“Scientists are also going to be digging into certain chemicals used in flame retardants, which may elevate human risk impacts,” Guilbeault said. “This is something that firefighters are asking for.”

Also on the list is a compound linked to oilsands operations: naphthenic acids.

Naphthenic acids are found in oilsands tailings ponds used by mining operations in places like northeastern Alberta. These massive ponds collect by-products from oilsands mining operations — a mixture of water, sand, residual bitumen and other hydrocarbons that the industry calls “processed” water.

Listing substances on a priority list does not mean they’re harmful to Canadians — but it does mean federal officials will prioritize determining whether those substances are toxic. If that happens, the government can take steps under CEPA to address their use — or even ban them.

Environmental groups are urging the government to move from proposals to actual regulations that protect Canadians.

“Leading environmental, health, and justice groups are concerned that improvements to the legislation will be eroded by delays,” says a joint statement issued by Ecojustice, a Canadian environmental law charity.

“Without this regulation in place, substances that pose the highest risk to human health are unlikely to be banned.”