Canada finalizes an update to hazardous communication rules

On 4 January 2023, Health Canada published the finalized version of an update to the Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR). This update was postponed earlier in 2022 because the Canadian government aimed for this update to be more in line with an update of OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standards (HazCom) underway in the US. This update brought the Canadian Globally Harmonized System (GHS) standard to the seventh revised edition of the UN GHS of classification and labeling of chemicals. It is expected that this update will affect companies that are active in the manufacturing of chemicals, plastics, and rubber industries.

Some of the changes in this update include:

• Updating various definitions, including for skin corrosion and irritation, eye irritation and serious eye damage, respiratory and skin sensitisation and more
• Acquiring a new hazard class list for non-flammable aerosols, including new subcategories for flammable gasses
• Including a test procedure for oxidizing solids
• Adjusting the required information on safety data sheets (SDSs)

It is expected that the new and updated HPR will further improve labeling requirements for products using small containers with a volume capacity of 100 ml or less.  Moreover, based on this update, a new physical hazard class for "chemicals under pressure," incorporated from GHS 8 is added to the HPR. This new physical hazard class is believed to bring new products into the scope of the HPR, causing new expenses for suppliers as they need to prepare new labels and SDSs for certain liquids or solids packaged in pressurized containers beside aerosol dispensers.

Manufacturers are expected to implement the changes for their products before 14 December 2025. These changes include product classifications, SDSs, and labels. Furthermore, the Health Canada has announced that they will be publishing further instructions and guidelines on the transition period on the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) website: https://whmis.org/.