Annual compliance verification reporting for the Consumer Product Safety Program 2021-2022
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Organization: Health Canada
On this page
- Executive summary
- Top recalled consumer product categories
- Working with international partners
- Targeted inspections
- Conclusion
Executive summary
Health Canada's Consumer Product Safety Program (program) helps protect people in Canada by assessing the health risks and safety hazards of consumer products and cosmetics.
During the fiscal year 2021-22, the program received nearly 3,000 reports from both industry and consumers, as well as over 60,000 cosmetic notifications; some of which led to reactive compliance and enforcement activities.
The program also conducted a variety of other compliance verification activities:
- 324 planned product-based inspections
- 4,003 monitoring inspections to verify recalled products were not for sale
- 2,227 referrals from the Canada Border Services Agency, which led to 1,271 shipments into Canada being refused
- of these shipments, 1,074 were personal and 197 were commercial
Overall, the program took corrective action on 505 different non-compliant products. These corrective actions included:
- 250 voluntary recalls (154 from reported incidents and 96 from inspections), with 7 million units of products recalled in Canada
- 105 stop sales and 45 stop distributions
- 28 corrections and 77 commitments
Learn about how the program is delivered:
Top recalled consumer product categories
These were the top 5 product categories for recalled consumer products:
- clothing, textiles and accessories (21%)
- children's products (15%)
- housewares (14%)
- outdoor living (13%)
- home & automobile maintenance (11%)
Working with international partners
Health Canada continues to work with other countries to publish joint recalls. Canada's Consumer Product Safety Program and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had 55 joint recalls in 2021-22. This affected close to 18.1 million units.
In collaboration with the U.S. CPSC and Mexico's Consumer Protection Federal Agency (known as PROFECO), the program conducted 2 tri-lateral recalls in 2021-22. This affected 3.6 million units.
Targeted inspections
Table 1 includes product inspection activities that were completed by March 31, 2022. Inspection activities that started in 2021-22 but weren't completed by March 31, 2022, will be captured in the next annual report.
Details on the results of the individual projects are found in the enforcement summary reports. Publication of these reports is part of the Government of Canada's commitment to regulatory transparency and openness.
| N/A | Project | Number of inspections | Evaluation means (and applicable legislation) | Number of samples assessed | Findings of non-compliance | Corrective measures | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recall | Stop sale | Stop distribution | Trader commitment | Other | ||||||
| Started in 2020-21 and completed in 2021-22 | Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations, 2001 (CCCR, 2001) | 19 | Sampling and testing to the CCCR, 2001 | 37 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Started in 2021-22 and completed in 2021-22 | Charcoal | 25 | Visual examination of hazard warning labels to the Charcoal Regulations | 37 | 29 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 0 |
| Children's Sleepwear | 20 | Sampling and testing to the Children's Sleepwear Regulations | 19 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 advisory | |
| Cosmetic Hotlist - PPD | 22 | Sampling and testing for substances on the Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist | 49 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 24 | 0 | |
| Cosmetic – sodium bromate and thioglycolic acid (TGA) | 93 | Review of documents to the Food and Drugs Act and the Cosmetic Regulations | 376 | 28 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 0 | |
| Costumes | 22 | Sampling and testing for flammability and packaging requirements of the Toys Regulations | 25 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
| Drawstrings | 36 | Visual inspection of children's upper outerwear with the performance criteria of the ASTM F1816-18 | 46 | 36 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 0 | |
| Flame-Jetting - Firepots | 15 | Review of establishment records to the CCCR, 2001 and the performance criteria of the ASTM F3363-19 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 advisory | |
| Furniture tip-over | 29 | Sampling and testing to the performance criteria of the ASTM F2057-19 | 19 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mandatory incident reporting | 8 | Review of incident reporting to the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act | 192 documents/events | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Toys – plush | 31 | Sampling and mechanical testing to the Toys Regulations | 25 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Toys – magnets | 4 | Sampling and testing to the Toys Regulations | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 advisory | |
| Total | 324 | N/A | 843 | 183 | 68 | 14 | 22 | 80 | 3 | |
Conclusion
Through the Consumer Product Safety Program, Health Canada is able to quickly identify and act on product safety risks. We are also able to keep consumers informed about health and safety issues related to consumer products and cosmetics.
We will use the information from 2021-22 compliance verification activities and the reports we received from consumers and industry to plan future activities. This information will help the federal government target product safety risks to better protect the health and safety of consumers.
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