Worldwide implementation of the GHS woulds facilitate international trade, enhance workplace safety
The recent publication of the Joint Action Plan from the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council is the latest push forward in the long journey to transition from the Canadian Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) to the universal Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).
GHS is a standardized, internationally consistent approach to classifying chemicals according to their physical, health and environmental hazards. GHS covers all hazardous chemical substances and mixtures, communicating hazard information through labels and safety data sheets.
GHS is expected to improve on Canada’s current WHMIS system by clarifying the communication of hazard information, identifying hazards not addressed under the current system and providing more detailed information on hazardous products to both employers and employees.
WHMIS — in place in Canada since 1988 — is implemented at the federal level through the Hazardous Products Act (HPA), and the Controlled Products Regulations (CPR). The system requires suppliers of hazardous chemicals intended for workplace use to classify products and provide related hazard information on material safety data sheets and labels.
The amended HPA received Royal Assent in June 2014, allowing the federal government to propose a plan to replace the CPR with the Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR) and implement GHS.
HPR will differ from the current CPR in its new approach to establishing classification of workplace hazardous chemicals, the classification of physical hazards, the classification of health hazards, hazard communication and exemptions.
A key objective of the implementation of the GHS is to create a system that would allow the use of a single North American label and safety data sheet for each hazardous product, he said. Despite efforts to harmonize regulations, however, Morrissette said some differences — such as bilingual labels in Canada — will continue to exist.
Adrian Miedema, a partner in the Toronto Employment Group of Dentons Canada LLP, said efforts to harmonize have been complicated by independent provincial and territorial health and safety laws.
"In Canada, each province has its own health and safety laws that apply to the majority of employees," Miedema said. "If there was going to be harmonization that is not just a matter of federal jurisdiction — hazardous products fall within federal jurisdiction — the federal government would have to not only enter into an agreement with the United States but also enter into an agreement with all the provinces that they were all going to harmonize in the same way."
Due to these complications, Miedema said he doubted the harmonization of occupational health and safety regulations would extend past the implementation of GHS.
"Following changes to federal legislation, the implementation of the GHS would require provinces and territories to make their own legislative and regulatory amendments," Morrissette said of the efforts to harmonize. "Health Canada has been working closely with the provinces and territories to transition to the new system."
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), in partnership with Health Canada, developed and released two free online training courses to help workplaces prepare for WHMIS after GHS.
According to Health Canada, the updated WHMIS laws are expected to be in force by June 2015. Under the proposed legislation, GHS would apply to sectors currently under WHMIS.
Additionally, eight sectors currently excluded from WHMIS — including consumer products, pest control products, explosives, cosmetics, medical devices, drugs, food, wood and products made from wood — could be moved to a schedule on the HPA under the new legislation.
The updated classification and labeling system will be aligned with the United States’ Hazard Communications Standard.
The Joint Action Plan — published by the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council — details the two governments’ efforts to continue to co-ordinate the regulation of occupational health and safety moving forward.
"Efforts towards regulatory alignment will be conducted by lead departments and agencies, under broad guidance from the RCC and in consultation with impacted stakeholders," the Joint Action Plan reads.
"Both Canada and the U.S. have among the highest standards of health and safety in the world, founded on strong and effective procedures for the development, assessment and marketing authorization (approval, licensing and/or registration) of health… and the classification of workplace chemicals."
The Joint Action Plan promises harmonizing occupational health and safety regulations through the implementation of GHS will reduce the potential for confusion among systems and lead to benefits from increased worker protection and safety.
The Regulatory Cooperation Council was launched in February 2011 to increase regulatory transparency and co-ordination between Canada and the United States.
