Ecological Risk Assessments of Metal-containing Substances under Canada’s Chemical Management Plan

Abstract

There are approximately 3,000 metal-containing substances on Canada's Domestic Substances List (DSL). Approximately one third of these substances were identified for further action by the categorization of the DSL, a priority setting exercise completed in 2006 which was based on ecological and human health considerations. Subsequently, the first phase of the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) was initiated and included activities such as the Challenge initiative to conduct screening assessments on the highest priority chemicals, including a few metal-containing substances. However, to assess the remaining elevated number of metal-containing substances identified as priorities (~1000) in the next phases of the CMP and that by 2020, a process for finding efficiencies was established. For the risk assessment and risk management of metal-containing substances, efficiencies can be achieved by using a moiety-based approach in which all substances that contain a common metal moiety are assessed simultaneously as a group. This approach also allows for consideration of incidental releases of a given metal. Because ecological concerns were identified during the Challenge for cobalt, an early metal-moiety assessment is being undertaken in the second phase of the CMP for this metal. This work has been initiated and the draft screening assessment is expected to be published in November 2013.