Reference Manual for the WHMIS Requirements of the Hazardous Products Act and Controlled Products Regulations

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Use Of The Web Edition Of The Reference Manual

The Health Canada Reference Manual for the WHMIS Requirements of the Hazardous Products Act (HPA) and the Controlled Products Regulations (CPR) provides a section-by-section "interpretation / discussion" of the federal legislation which sets out the Canadian supplier and Canadian importer labelling and MSDS requirements of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), Canada's national hazard classification and hazard communication standard.

Although the manual is targeted primarily to program administrators, it is being made publicly available to facilitate compliance with the WHMIS supplier and importer requirements of the HPA and CPR.

Warning Note

This Manual is issued primarily for the guidance of those who are concerned with administration and enforcement of the WHMIS requirements of the Hazardous Products Act.

This Manual is intended for guidance only.

Amendment History Of The Reference Manual

The manual was first issued on October 31, 1988, the date on which the WHMIS requirements of the HPA came into effect. The second edition was issued on March 31, 1996. Subsequent to this second printed edition, a number of substantive and non substantive amendments and updates have been incorporated into this web edition issued on October 31, 2000. Some significant additions to the last printed edition are identified below.

Application - General Requirements
Subject
Section(s)
Date
Internet: use of to transmit MSDSs HPA 13 2001/03/22
Classification related
Subject
Section(s)
Date
acute toxicity: use of data from OECD Test Guideline 420, Fixed Dose Method CPR 46 and 49 2000/10/31
embryotoxicity: guidelines for the evaluation of indicators of maternal toxicity CPR 53(1) 2000/10/31
maternal toxicity factors: guidelines for the evaluation of indicators of maternal toxicity CPR 53(1) 2000/10/31
Label related
Subject
Section(s)
Date
border of label: placement of information not required by the CPR within "hatched" border CPR 20(a)(ii) 2000/10/31
first aid statements: recommended guidelines CPR 19 2000/10/31
language requirements: use of languages other than English and French CPR 24(3) 2000/10/31
MSDS related
Subject
Section(s)
Date
first aid statements: recommended guidelines CPR Schedule I,
subitem 9(1)
2000/10/31
personal protective equipment (PPE): regulators' policy on PPE disclosure CPR Schedule I,
subitem 8(1)
2000/10/31
toxicological information disclosure: regulators' guidelines for the disclosure of toxicological information CPR Schedule I,
subitems 1(3), 1(4) and 7(1) to 7(11)
2000/10/31

Your Comments

Should users wish to comment on this manual or find any discrepancies between what is stated in the Health Canada manual in relation to the Hazardous Products Act, Controlled Products Regulations or Ingredient Disclosure List versus that in other documents, you are invited to bring these and any recommendations you may wish to make to the attention of Health Canada at 1-855-407-2665 or WHMIS_SIMDUT@hc-sc.gc.ca.

Health Canada Reference Manual - Notations

The following notations have been used to identify changes to the Health Canada Reference Manual for the WHMIS Requirements of the Hazardous Products Act and the Controlled Products Regulations:

amendment
a new section has been added to the regulations
amended
an existing section of the regulations has been amended
corrected
editorial corrections to the "discussion" section has been made
updated
the discussion / interpretation section has been updated as a result of, for example, a newly developed policy

The dates are year / month / day and correlate to the date on which regulatory amendments were officially registered or, with the exception of corrections, the date on which there was a decision to modify the "interpretation / discussion" section; i.e., the dates indicated below do not correspond to the date on which the website was adjusted.

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