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Environment and Workplace Health

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

Use of the web edition of the Reference Manual
Amendment history of the Reference Manual
Your comments
Reference Manual - Notations
Reference Manual

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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.

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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

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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, the national WHMIS coordinator, which also provides the secretariat for this national program:

David A. Bideshi
Chief, National Office of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System
Health Canada
123 Slater Street, 4th floor
Address Locator: 3504D
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9

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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.

Reference Manual

Last Updated: 2006-02-10 Top