Backgrounder: Government of Canada taking next steps in banning asbestos to protect workers’ health and safety 

Backgrounder

On December 15, 2016, the Government of Canada announced a broader government strategy to ban asbestos and asbestos-containing products by 2018. In addition to the amendments to occupational health and safety regulations on asbestos announced today, the approach includes new regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, updates to national building codes to prohibit the use of asbestos in new construction and renovation projects across Canada and support for listing chrysotile asbestos to the Rotterdam Convention as a hazardous material. The goal of the asbestos ban is to reduce the incidence of asbestos-related diseases over time.

The main objectives of the amendments to OHS regulations on asbestos are to:

·        protect the health of employees in the federal jurisdiction and provide regulatory certainty by setting an appropriate Occupational Exposure Limit for airborne asbestos fibre;

·        ensure consistency with most provincial and territorial regulatory regimes for airborne asbestos fibre;

·        protect the health of employees in the federal jurisdiction by regulating work activities such as handling, removal, repair or disturbance of asbestos-containing material that could expose employees to friable asbestos; and

·        ensure that the Government of Canada is in compliance with the International Labour Organization’s Asbestos Convention, 1986 (No. 162).

Canada’s occupational health and safety regulations require that all exposure to airborne asbestos should follow the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Values which is 0.1 fibre per cubic centimeter (f/cc). However, because airborne chrysotile asbestos was mined in Canada for more than 100 years, the Government of Canada provided an exemption for a higher exposure level threshold for airborne chrysotile asbestos, that of 1 f/cc. As a result, the Occupational Exposure Limit for airborne chrysotile asbestos was too high in relation to the levels recommended by scientific consensus to protect the health and safety of employees at risk. 

Through the Hazardous Substances Working Group, federally regulated employers and employees were consulted on these amendments including the requirements for employers to develop and implement an asbestos abatement and exposure management program. Consensus was reached on a new occupational exposure limit and a management program. 

The regulations including provisions that prescribe the requirements for an asbestos exposure management program where asbestos-containing material is disturbed or exposed in a workplace and where there is the potential for a release of asbestos fibre or employee exposure to airborne asbestos fibre, were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I on December 24, 2016, followed by a 45-day public comment period.

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