The Full Report
The Issues: Human Health and Toxic Chemicals
Environmental contaminants in our air, water and food are having an enormous negative impact on the health of Canadians. Exposure to environmental contaminants has been linked to asthma, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, developmental disorders, birth defects, and reproductive problems. Health Canada estimates that the direct health care costs and lost productivity caused by environmental factors add up to between $46 billion and $52 billion a year.
Currently, many Canadian health and environment laws and policies are weaker than corresponding laws in other nations. For example:
- Canada does not yet have legally binding national standards for air and drinking water quality;
- Canada permits the use of pesticides that other countries have banned for health and environmental reasons;
- Canada allows higher levels of pesticide residues on our food;
- Canada has failed to regulate effectively toxic substances such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs);
- Canada has weaker regulations for toxic substances such as radon, lead, mercury, arsenic, and asbestos.
Children are particularly vulnerable to ongoing exposure to air pollutants, contaminants in food, and toxic substances in consumer products. Meanwhile, there is clear evidence of a large and growing problem of respiratory illness in children, including asthma, where known contributors include indoor and outdoor pollution. Lead and mercury are highly toxic to the developing brain, yet Canada has refused to sign an international treaty to reduce the threat of mercury to the global environment.
The federal government must adopt a precautionary approach that includes the phasing out of substances that have been shown to be harmful and setting legal limits on human exposure to toxic substances found in consumer products. Where a substance has been shown to be harmful and alternatives are available, a ban or phase-out for all non-essential uses should automatically be put in place. This restriction should remain in place until industry can demonstrate the chemical can be safely used or released under rigorous real world conditions.
Finally, it is time to consider an Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) for Canadians. This legislation would recognize the right to a clean environment shared by all Canadians. The EBR would be a vehicle for the values of transparency, access to information, accountability, public participation in decision-making and adequate enforcement. It would also provide Canadians with additional tools to demand enforcement when federal actions are lacking.
Canada's Human Health and Toxic Chemicals Action Agenda:
- Immediately implement the precautionary principle by regulating toxic chemicals in the federal Chemicals Management Plan. In particular, implement bans or phase-outs for all non-essential uses of substances known to be harmful where safe alternatives exist and maintain such restrictions until credible evidence is presented that the chemical can be safely used or released.
- Immediately ban chemicals, including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and Bisphenol A (BPA), for which there is both significant evidence of harm and safe substitutes available. Support companies as they adapt to using lower-risk substitutes with research, information sharing and adjustment programs.
- By 2009, amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to implement the recommendations of the April 2007 all-party report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development by:
- Placing the onus on companies to show that chemicals are safe, rather than the current onus on government to demonstrate harm, in a way that is similar to what the European Union has implemented in its recent chemicals legislation;
- Establishing a disclosure requirement for company data on the health and environmental effects of chemicals;
- Providing meaningful protection for the Great Lakes Basin through funding for research and monitoring, an expert panel to report to Parliament on Great Lakes clean-up efforts, and regulations for substances identified for virtual elimination by the International Joint Commission; and
- Requiring prompt and meaningful action to limit human exposure to a particular substance when scientific evidence shows that substance to be toxic,
- By 2008, set national and regional emission reduction targets for harmful pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, based on stringent air-quality standards that protect both the environment and human health, especially the health of vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, and people with respiratory problems.
- By 2010, pass an Environmental Bill of Rights that would:
- Establish the right of citizens to a healthy environment;
- Establish a duty of public trust on the part of the federal government to manage and protect the environment for the benefit of current and future generations;
- Allow Canadians to take action against the federal government for any breach of its public trust duty;
- Guarantee reasonable access to environmental information so that citizens make informed decisions about how best to protect their local environment;
- Establish a right for citizens to participate in environmental decision-making.
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