Today, June 5 (World Environment Day), the Ontario government passes 3rd reading on the Toxic Reduction Act, a plan to help protect people and the environment from toxic substances.

The Act intends to reduce the toxic chemicals being created and placed into what we use, eat, drink and breath.  When the act is in place, regulations would require designated facilities to track and evaluate their current use and creation of toxics, develop plans to reduce the use of toxics, and make summaries of their plans available to the public.

During this summer, there will be meetings around Ontario with stakeholders and the public to determine what substances will be included and how soon sectors will be expected to come into compliance with the plan.  The government has included $24 million to help industries meet the requirements and start to implement the green chemistry alternatives into their process and products.

“The Toxics Reduction Act will help reduce toxic substances in Ontario and contribute to a cleaner and healthier environment for our families and communities and a higher quality of life for us all,” said John Gerretsen, Minister of the Environment.

As part of the plan, industries who currently use toxic substances requiring them to track and quantify the toxics that they use and create, to develop plans to reduce toxics, and to make summaries of their plans available to the public. This information would be available to the public, as part of the government’s commitment to informing Ontarians about toxics.

Substances are considered toxic because of:

a) the nature and amount of the substance,

b) the length or time of exposure to the substance,

c) the sensitivity of the organism to the substance and

d) the route of exposure to the substance. 

There are over 10,000 chemicals registered for use in Canada and many are toxic and/or create problems like asthma, kidney failure, birth defects, cancer and death.  Some are not intended to be releases but are through accidental exposure because of a spill.  Others, like pesticides, are purposefully introduced into the environment because they kill pest organisms.  Other impacts can  be lost production time due to illness, related health care costs and synergistic impacts on the environment not intended.  Because of the longevity of some, like DDT, PCBs, dioxins, they are banned from use or production in Canada once we found out their impacts.  But they can come back to us in imported food or through water or air movement.

For details on the bill, go to http://www.ontla.on.ca/bills/bills-files/39_Parliament/Session1/b167.pdf 

For other associated fact sheets and backgrounders, go to http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/toxics/index.php. 

If you want to know more about the work of environmental groups in your area or Canada working on toxics, check out the Canadian Environmental Network Toxics Caucus website, http://www.cen-rce.org/eng/caucuses/toxics/index.html

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