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ARCHIVED - Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999
- CEPA annual report April 2001 - March 2002

Part 5.  Controlling Toxic Substances

Categorization and Screening of Substances on the DSL

Long Description

CEPA 1999 requires the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Health to categorize the substances that are on the Domestic Substances List (DSL) for the purpose of identifying the substances on the List that, in their opinion and on the basis of available information,

  1. may present, to individuals in Canada, the greatest potential for exposure; or
  2. is persistent or bioaccumulative, in accordance with the Persistence and Bioaccumulation Regulations, and inherently toxic to human beings or to non-human organisms, as determined by laboratory or other studies.

Environment Canada is responsible for determining whether substances are persistent or bioaccumulative and inherently toxic to non-human organisms. Health Canada is responsible for determining if substances are persistent or bioaccumulative and inherently toxic to humans, and for identifying substances that have the greatest potential for human exposure.

A substance meeting the above categorization criteria then proceeds to a second phase, a screening assessment (SA).

A SA involves a more in-depth analysis of a substance to determine if the substance is "toxic" or capable of becoming "toxic" under the Act. A SA results in one of the following outcomes:

  1. no further action is taken at this time in respect of the substance, if the SA indicates that the substance does not pose a risk to the environment or human health;
  2. the substance is added to the CEPA Priority Substances List in order to assess more comprehensively the risks associated with the release of the substance, if the substance is not already on the List; or
  3. it is recommended that the substance be added to the List of Toxic Substances in Schedule 1 of CEPA, and considered for regulatory or other controls (and possible virtual elimination).