Thank you very much.
My name is David Morin. I'm the director general of the safe environments directorate at Health Canada.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today to talk about the report on toxic substances and enforcing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
I also want to thank the commissioner for her report. Health Canada accepts the recommendations and is working on following through on those recommendations.
I would like to share a few brief remarks.
As you know, the audit is on federal measures taken with regard to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, or CEPA, in order to control toxic substances and to communicate the related risks. CEPA is an important legislative document that Health Canada invokes in order to protect human health through the chemicals management plan.
The CMP is highly regarded as a world-leading approach to chemicals management, and I'm proud to say that other countries often look to Canada as a model for improving their own approaches.
With our partners at Environment and Climate Change Canada, we use the latest scientific information to identify substances that may be harmful to human health and the environment, and we work with Environment and Climate Change Canada to manage these risks through various mechanisms, such as new regulations, codes of practice and information to Canadians.
To date we have assessed over 3,500 substances under the CMP, and as my colleague Gwen mentioned, over 450 of these individual substances have been found to be toxic to human health and/or the environment, resulting in over 90 measures put in place to address these risks since the implementation of the CMP, or chemicals management plan, in 2006.
We use various methods to assess the effectiveness of these risk management actions. One important tool we use is biomonitoring—which involves looking at blood and urine samples from Canadians through the Canadian Health Measures Survey. This survey is currently in its 5th cycle. It has historically included approximately 6,000 Canadians per cycle, with about 100 different chemicals being tested.
As an example of biomonitoring, I can tell you that the level of lead in the blood of Canadians has declined by over 70% since the late 1970s, due to federal measures to restrict lead in gasoline and paint. The level of mercury in blood has also declined as a result of reducing emissions of mercury domestically by 90%.
We are confident our efforts are making a difference. However, we also agree with the commissioner that we need to be more systematic in our approach to demonstrating how the CMP is working to protect the health of Canadians. This work is not always scientifically straightforward. For example, it took about 20 years to see a decrease in the traces of lead in humans after the government imposed restrictions on the use of lead in gasoline.
The commissioner's report correctly notes that we are in the process of finishing three comprehensive performance evaluations—for bisphenol A, mercury and lead—to formally examine whether our established objectives for risk reduction have been met. We are aiming to publish our first evaluation on BPA before the end of the year, with the other two to follow. This work will allow us to better communicate to parliamentarians and all Canadians on how the CMP is working to protect the health of Canadians every day.
In terms of how we communicate to the public, we know that Canadians are concerned about toxic substances and want information that is easy to find and understand. To that end, we post information on our website and on social media, we distribute a number of guides on specific topics, and we hold workshops for various audiences. We also engage trusted key stakeholders who can help us share information through their networks.
We recently conducted public opinion research to better understand what type of information Canadians are looking for and identify areas for improvement. Armed with this information, we have already developed a targeted communications strategy that will address the commissioner's recommendation. The strategy will be launched in the coming months. It includes a suite of new activities and messaging aimed at helping Canadians more easily find relevant and useful information about toxic substances so that they can make informed decisions to help protect their family. This messaging will include new plain-language advice to Canadians on chemicals and pollutants of concern in and around their home and what they need to know when buying, storing or disposing of products.
In conclusion, we very much welcome the commissioner's report and have an action plan in place to respond to all of its recommendations.
I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the important work of this committee in their review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The findings from both this audit and the work of this committee will help inform the continuous improvement of chemicals management in Canada.
Thank you.