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YOUR digital database for the CASE industry in Canada
As 2022 draws to a close, industry cannot ignore the ongoing challenges with raw material supplies and the negative impacts on business from ever changing regulations. As always, the CASE industry in Canada has coped well. CPCA continues its work on the never-ending churn of legislation and regulation for which Canada is well known. Any changes to regulations for CASE chemicals
can have a significant impact on the Canadian coatings
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industry. As such, it could directly impact product formulations, R&D, innovation, product stewardship, product performance, etc.
Chemical Assessment: Key chemicals in commerce, including many for the CASE sector, have been undergoing extensive risk assessment over the past 15 years. The federal government has budgeted $500 million to continue that assessment over the next five years under the Chemicals Management Plan. The chemical prioritization plan to determine which chemicals will be assessed over the next five years is still being developed.
Biocide Re-evaluation: There is the ongoing re-evaluation of critical biocides used in coatings and this remains a real concern as there are so few remaining for in-can and film preservation.
New VOC Limits: Amendments to VOC regulations are also on the new federal agenda for Architectural, Automotive, and Industrial coatings as we move forward.
Worker Safety: There are a number of regulations for worker safety in Canada, as there should be, but the continued effort to globally align those regulations under GHS remains increasingly challenging.
With information on more than 1200 chemicals in commerce in Canada, members can search the details and status of each chemical on the Canada CoatingsHUB™. Search by chemical number (CAS-RN), including the status of chemicals being assessed to determine if they can remain in commerce in Canada, are restricted or banned outright. Changes also include updates to the Hub’s dashboard related to compliance alerts, resources, menu structure, and placement within the platform interface.
The most substantive of the HUB changes is the addition of the NEW ‘Biocides Substance Database’. It is a comprehensive database with over 1,800 different registrations sorted by CASRN. The database details status of all active product registrations related to these biocides; and more importantly, the status (Step) of the biocide evaluation or re-evaluation in PMRA’s regulatory review process. This data is provided on a ‘proprietary’ digital information platform specifically for CPCA member companies only.
Specific feedback from members over the past two years allowed CPCA to further refine the structure of the CoatingsHUB™ using data visualization, improved icons, content blocks, and other tools to enhance the aesthetics, flow and curation of data posted for CPCA members’ convenience. All member companies should ensure staff
activates their Hub account to stay abreast of developing
regulations impacting their company in Canada.
CPCA’s main advocacy focus is to ensure those who are responsible for adding or changing chemical regulations
in the CASE sector base those decisions on the
available scientific data. That data for the paint and coatings industry is provided by CPCA members, who are mandated by government to provide the data under CEPA. This process, while onerous, has worked well for CPCA members in the past. Any efforts to change the widely lauded risk-based approach must avoid any unintended consequences this could cause for the protection of human health and the environment.
Fast Facts
The Canada CoatingsHUB houses 2195 industry resources and a substance database with over 2947 chemicals used in CASE products.
CPCA has something now that no other coatings association in the world can even begin to boast of as companies are extremely interested in regulatory information.
