Guide to Canadian Consumer Chemical Product Assessment

There are special rules for kits and display cards. A kit is a package that contains more than one product. If the packaging is a multipack of one regulated product and the outer packaging is not transparent, then the outer packaging must bear all of the required information. But if the kit contains another product with the regulated product, then only the limited warnings for kits needs to be displayed on the outer package.

Display cards and blister cards are considered to be packaging and must be labelled accordingly. However, if the required information displayed on the product is visible to the consumer through this packaging, the display card or blister card need not be labelled. If some of the labelling on the back of an inner container is obscured, this information needs to be repeated on the card -this information may appear on the back of the card.

The labelling content is determined from the classification results in each of Parts 1 to 5 of the Regulations. The warnings required by these Regulations must be displayed in both official languages, that is, in English and French.

The wording for the warnings is mandatory unless specifically indicated. The risk phrases were developed through a consensus process, with the active collaboration of interested stakeholders, including the medical profession and public health organizations, the chemical industry, consumers' and seniors' groups, academia, technical experts and various federal government departments. The label statements are generic in terms of the hazard to ensure a constancy in the messages seen by consumers as well as a consistent set of rules for all companies.

Information other than the CCCR-2001 requirements is allowed as long as it does not disclaim or contradict the required information. The Regulations contain minimum requirements. The person responsible can add, and is encouraged to add, information considered necessary to fully inform consumers of the hazards of using their products.

However, the person responsible is discouraged from deliberately over-stating the hazards posed by a product. If unwarranted warnings are added to products, it may lead to unnecessary or inappropriate treatment upon exposure to the product. It also minimizes the perception of risk for those products which actually need the warnings, leading to potential injuries from a lack of concern or precaution by the consumer.

Is There a "Trade-Secret" Exemption for Ingredient Disclosure?

For toxic and corrosive products, the hazardous ingredients present at 1% or more must be listed in the first aid statement. The hazardous ingredients must be listed in descending order of proportion. That is, the first listed ingredient is present in the highest amount in the product.

An ingredient may be identified by its chemical name using the nomenclature system developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), or the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) rules of nomenclature, or any name which clearly gives the precise chemical identity. For complex mixtures, such as pine oil, the generic name may be used. The use of trade names, CAS numbers or other codes alone are not acceptable. As well, the use of the words "may contain" and other phrases which leave some ambiguity as to the composition and, consequently, the health hazard of the product, is discouraged.

There is no "trade secret" exemption from hazardous ingredient disclosure for consumer chemical products for the following reasons:

• the exact percentage of ingredients present is not required;
• only hazardous ingredients are listed, not all ingredients;
• there is a concentration cut-off of 1% for the listing of hazardous ingredients – fragrances and other trace additives are not included.

The presentation of the labelling information is designed to capture the attention of the user of the chemical product and for the subsequent ease of processing the information in the warnings.

The presentation of the labelling information is designed to capture the attention of the user of the chemical product and for the subsequent ease of processing the information in the warnings.

Hazard warnings must be clear and legible, with a 70% contrast. They must remain legible throughout the lifetime of the product, and not fade, run, rub off or peel off under normal use. The diameter of the hazard symbol and the print size increase with the size of the container, to ensure that the information is legible under actual use conditions.

Colour

To allow for flexibility in product design, there is no specification for the colour of the warning information. The extreme variability of background and other colour elements on consumer product labels rules out requirements for specific colours. Readability is ensured with the requirements for print type, format and contrast, rather than colour. However, label designers should take into consideration that the combination of certain colours is difficult to distinguish for people who are colour-blind, particularly red/green.

Main Panel:

The consumer sees a consistent and familiar location for the safety information: always below the common name of the product. The prominent placement of the hazard symbol, signal word and primary hazard statement on the main display panel alerts consumers and significantly increases the incidence of reading the more detailed precautionary labelling. The hazard symbol also helps warn people with a limited ability to read English or French, including young children. The signal word reinforces the message given by the hazard symbol while indicating the degree of hazard. The primary hazard statement provides a brief description of the main hazard associated with exposure to the product.

The layout on the main display panel is a vertical format, where each element is located immediately below the other. But when more than one hazard symbol is required, they should be placed in a row parallel to the base of the container; not stacked. A horizontal format is only allowed for certain short-wide containers.

Back Panel:

Since the space available on the front of the container limits the amount of labelling that can be placed there, the specific hazard statements, positive and negative instructions, and the first aid statement are allowed to be placed elsewhere on the container.

The Border

This labelling must be placed within a border. The border enables consumers to distinguish between the safety-related information required by the CCCR-2001 from the other information on the label. Thi s will ensure that the first aid statement can be readily found during the stressful conditions of an emergency situation, when the reader may not have the time or may be too upset to search for the information.

The border must meet legibility and durability requirements, including the contrast. It may be made through the use of a difference in colour or shading of the background. But it must be different from the WHMIS border, so as not to be confused with precautionary labelling intended for workers.

Can information not required by the CCCR-2001 be placed in the border?

The object of the border is to make the information required by the CCCR-2001 stand out from the other label information. It is appropriate to allow additional safety-related information within the CCCR-2001 border. However, the presence of marketing or other information within the border would defeat its purpose.

The person responsible must produce the record of the steps taken to determine the appropriate labelling for their product. There is a time limit of 15 days to provide the requested information to an inspector.

Containers Must Not Leak:

(CCCR-2001, s, 7)

A container of a liquid chemical product should not leak when sold or when used for the number of openings and closings normally required for the container’s size and contents. Although some products require containers that are designed to release vapours in order to avoid the build-up of internal pressures within the container, the liquid product must not be able to leak-out.

The leakage test is done on the product as it would be filled at the time of sale. The use of a placebo is not a satisfactory substitute for the actual chemical product.

Empty Containers

The leakage requirement also applies to empty containers that are destined to store and dispense a chemical product. The empty container must be filled with the product and tested in the same manner as a container that is full at the time of sale.

Child-resistant packaging creates a barrier between harmful chemical products and a naturally curious child. In general, child-resistant packaging is required for chemical products classified in the following sub-categories:

• toxic
• very corrosive
• corrosive
• quick skin-bonding adhesive

Containers which require a tool to open, such as paint cans or soup cans, are considered to be child-resistant by design. A person must not be able to gain access to the contents of the container without using a tool, and the tool must not be supplied with the container.

A container's design is considered to be child-resistant where there exist acceptable results from a test protocol using children. In general, these standards require that at least 80% of those children being tested be prevented from opening the container during a 10-minute test. This requirement means that some children may still be able to open a container, if given enough time to do so.

At present, there are no universal mechanical tests to assess whether a package is child-resistant. Children investigate several different ways of opening a container. For example, if their fingers won't work, their teeth might. Using a child-test protocol allows manufactures to design packages that meet the safety requirement without limiting technical innovation. However, once a container design has passed a child-test protocol, mechanical testing can be used to verify continued product compliance to the specifications established as effective.

A child-resistant container should continue to restrict access to the contents by young children for as long as it holds the chemical product. It should work properly during shipping, during storage on the retail shelf prior to sale as well as after it is sold, for the number of openings and closings normally required for the container's size and contents.

This requirement does not entail the re-testing of filled containers according to a child-test protocol, due to the potential for exposure to harmful chemicals. Simple mechanical tests are available to verify the continued functioning of filled child-resistant containers, once the design prototype is deemed to be child-resistant according to a child-test protocol.

To verify that the container and closure system will perform as originally designed, the specifications must be available for inspection. These records may be retained by the person responsible located in Canada, or they may be retained by the supplier(s) of the container's components and provided by the person responsible when requested by the inspector. Retailers are not required to keep these records.

These records must be kept for three years, to permit sufficient time for legal actions to commence before records are destroyed. There is a time limit of 15 days to provide the requested information to an inspector.

The CCCR-2001 came into effect on October 1, 2001, with a transition period for existing consumer chemical products and containers that comply with the previous Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations (CCCR). There is a two-year transition period for upper-level suppliers of consumer chemical products and containers, with an additional one- or two-year transition period at retail, depending on the hazard posed by the product.

The transition period applied to consumer chemical products and containers that were being produced, sold or imported prior to October 1, 2001. A product must have reached the stage of production at which the plating-up of its label was completed and the plated-up label complied with the CCCR. Manufacturers, distributors and importers have until September 30, 2003 to meet the requirements of the CCCR-2001. During the two-year transition period, products that comply with either the CCCR or the CCCR-2001 are legal. After October 1, 2003, all consumer chemical products and containers must be in full compliance with the CCCR-2001 when they are imported or sold above the retail level of trade.

Note that products that were being sold in Canada before October 1, 2001 that were not subject to the CCCR but are now covered under the CCCR-2001 qualify for the transition period. But the transition period does not apply in the following circumstances:

New Products: the product was not produced, sold or imported into Canada prior to October 1, 2001;

Modified Products: the product was produced before October 1, 2001 in compliance with the CCCR, but there has been a subsequent change to the product's formulation, labelling or packaging;

Noncompliant Products: the product was produced before October 1, 2001, but it did not comply with the CCCR.

Hence, new or modified products, or products that did not comply to the previous CCCR as of October 1, 2001, do not qualify for the transition period and must meet the CCCR-2001 immediately.

Retailers have an additional transition period, to allow for old stock to be depleted. Products that were entitled to the manufacturer's transition period may continue to be sold at retail until September 30, 2005 if they are classified solely in the sub-categories "harmful", "irritant", "combustible" or "pressurized container". Products classified under any other sub-category may only be sold until September 30, 2004.

The importation of chemical products or containers that do not meet the CCCR-2001 requirements is allowed as long as the imported product is brought into compliance prior to its sale to consumers. An importer may bring a product or container into compliance, or may sell the product or container to another person who will bring it into compliance. Also, an importer may temporarily (that is, for a reasonable transition period) bring non-complying chemical products or containers into Canada to re-export them to another country.

Bringing a product or container into compliance with the CCCR-2001 may involve re-formulation, re-packaging into a child-resistant container, or the application of over-labels with the appropriate labelling. Both product and container are included to allow an importer to bring in empty containers from other countries to be filled and packaged in Canada.

Credible Evidence:

The onus is on the importer to provide enough evidence to support the importation of non-complying product. Examples of credible evidence include answers to these questions:

• which printing company has been hired for producing the new compliant labels?
• where is a draft label or mock-up of the label?
• what packager is being used?
• where is the production line or warehouse where changes will be made to this product?
• where is the workplan or schedule for completion of the necessary work?

Further Information:

Contact Product Safety Programme Regional Offices in Canada