Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to appear today.
I'd also like to thank Ms. Gelfand and her team for their report. Health Canada agrees with the recommendations and has already begun work to address them.
This report addresses various issues related to the consumer product safety program, but focuses on the management of chemicals of concern in consumer products and in cosmetics.
When it comes to the potential risks of chemicals in consumer products or cosmetics—what the report terms “chemicals of concern”—it is the chemicals management plan that allows Health Canada to identify precisely what a chemical of concern is. The recently renewed CMP is a world-leading approach to the risk assessment and the risk management of chemicals. It uses scientific information to identify those chemicals that may have health effects and, importantly, whether Canadians may be exposed to them at levels that may pose actual risks to their health. It is through the CMP that Health Canada has identified certain substances of concern, for example BPA, which we banned in baby bottles; or the flame retardant TCEP, which we have prohibited in foam products for children.
Health Canada thanks the commissioner for her constructive suggestions concerning improving our management of risks from chemicals of concern in consumer products and for the more general suggestions for improving the effectiveness of this now five-year-old consumer product safety program. As I've said, we have already begun to implement the recommendations, and we will continue in this work.
I plan to focus the rest of my time on our cosmetics program, where the bulk of the attention in this report is focused.
Cosmetics are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act which, like the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, contains a general prohibition making it illegal to sell dangerous products. The same basic principles of shared responsibility apply to both the consumer product and the cosmetic regimes. Generally, industry is responsible for ensuring the safety of the products they bring to market, consumers are responsible for making informed choices about the products they purchase and for using them safely, and government has responsibility for regulatory oversight and for risk communications.
As it is for consumer products, the CMP is key to our management of chemicals in cosmetics. Through the CMP, 26 substances have been identified as problematic when used in cosmetics. These have been added to the cosmetics hotlist, meaning they are prohibited or restricted for use.
Health Canada has the ability to rapidly screen cosmetics for chemicals on the hotlist. When industry begins sale of a new product, or changes the formulation of an existing cosmetic, they must notify Health Canada within 10 days and provide the list of ingredients and their concentrations. We receive roughly 30,000 such notifications each year.
The commissioner's report noted 50 cases over a two-year period where a prohibited substance was notified in a cosmetic. The commissioner indicated—and we agree—that some of these cases were too slow in being resolved. While implementation of an online notification system in 2013 has greatly reduced our response time, we will be taking additional actions to make sure we can respond in a more timely manner.
The commissioner has also suggested that more needs to be done to verify that cosmetics do not contain substances that are not on the label or notified to Health Canada.
Where evidence indicates this may be an issue, as in the case of formaldehyde in hair straighteners in 2011, we do conduct sampling, but we have agreed with the suggestion that we can do more.
Supporting consumers in making wise choices is an important part of our job. Our regulations require cosmetics to disclose all ingredients on the label, thereby making it easier for consumers to make informed decisions. The one exception, as the report points out, is that in line with international standards, the sub-ingredients of fragrances or perfumes don't have to be individually listed—although it is interesting to note that some leading companies do disclose this information, either on the label or online. Beyond that, Health Canada agrees with the commissioner's recommendation to both encourage voluntary disclosure by industry to the department, which will allow us to check these ingredients against the hotlist, and to undertake to test for prohibited substances that may be included as part of a fragrance or perfume.
We will also further support consumers by communicating more about how cosmetics are regulated in Canada.
In conclusion, in all the areas that Health Canada regulates, we endeavour to take an approach commensurate to the risks posed by the products. This is based on a system that works to prevent problems before they occur, respond when they do, and provide the appropriate level of oversight.
We are confident that implementing the recommendations in this report will help us in our ongoing efforts to continuously improve the implementation of our program.
Thank you, Madam Chair.