{"id":734259,"date":"2021-02-05T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/?p=734259"},"modified":"2021-02-05T07:35:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T12:35:52","slug":"health-canada-prepares-update-to-whmis2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/help-center\/articles\/health-canada-prepares-update-to-whmis2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Canada Prepares Update to WHMIS2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

WHMIS2015<\/a> (\u201cWorkplace Hazardous Materials Information System, 2015\u201d) has been in place since, well, 2015. Over the past half-decade, the Canadian industry has worked to adjust to the new way of handling hazard communication for workplace chemicals. The standard now is based on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling, 5th Revision<\/a><\/em><\/span>, known more simply as the GHS or sometimes, based on its cover, as the Purple Book. But since WHMIS2015 came into effect, the GHS has moved onward. Now, Health Canada, the department in charge of implementing WHMIS, will play a bit of \u201ccatch up\u201d in an amendment aimed at leaping forward to the 7<\/span>th<\/span> Revision of the GHS.<\/span><\/p>\n

On December 19, 2020, Health Canada published “Regulation Amending the Hazardous Products Regulations (GHS, Seventh Revised Edition)”<\/a><\/span> in Canada Gazette I<\/a><\/em><\/span>. If you\u2019re not familiar with the Canadian regulatory system, this is a proposed amendment. Publication is followed by a comment period, and the amendment may be revised based on public feedback. The amendment becomes official once it is published in <\/span>Canada Gazette II<\/span><\/i>. For this amendment, that\u2019s hoped to be in the next few months. When Gazette II publishes the amendment, the current \u201cHazardous Products Regulations<\/a><\/span>\u201d (HPR), under the <\/span>Hazardous Products Act<\/span><\/i>, will be updated. However, there is likely to be a significant transition period to allow Canadian industry time to adjust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike the massive change to WHMIS that happened in 2015, when the whole previous system for classification and hazard communication was scrapped and replaced by a GHS-compliant one, the changes in this amendment are much less far-reaching. However, over the years since the 5<\/span>th<\/span> revision, the UN Subcommittee of Experts on GHS<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has tried to address a number of issues to make the system both more effective in identifying hazards and easier to use. So, the new amendment is likely to be good news in the long run for distributors of hazardous products, even if there will be the short-term pain of some changes to the classification of some products, as well as labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDSs).<\/span><\/p>\n

Proposed changes include:<\/span><\/p>\n