The paint and coatings industry around the world continues to support the safe use of an essential raw material for waterborne decorative paint formulations. Known as preservatives, these antimicrobial additives or biocides are necessary for controlling the growth of unwanted micro-organisms in waterborne paint. These products have achieved great consumer acceptance over the last 60 years, owing to their ease of application and clean-up, and overall product performance. Microbes are harmful and are the agents causing many infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Mold can trigger respiratory infections and allergies if allowed to grow in our homes and workplaces. It is critical that regulatory agencies around the world understand the essential nature of these products as part of their ongoing effort to evaluate and respond to any new, or emerging health, safety and environmental information. In Canada this function rests with the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), under the federal department of Health Canada, which seeks to align regulations with the US-EPA given that a large quantity of raw materials are imported into Canada daily for use in paint and coatings products. Without preservatives product life is greatly reduced and recycling of leftover paint would become impossible in the context of a circular economy approach.
Issues Tracking, Regulatory Updates & Canada Coatings HUB Resources
Biocides used as in-can and film preservatives for water-based paint has come under attack in Canada over the past two years. There have been five such biocides already negatively impacted with either bans or severe use restrictions making the biocide useless for paint preservation. There are eight others on the list for re-evaluation over the next two years and decisions are expected on those in 2020. This could impact all architectural paint products in Canada and on behalf of members, CPCA has been fully engaged in seeking reconsideration of decisions already made and suggested a new ‘cluster analysis’ approach on the remaining biocides used in paint so as to ensure all relevant data can be used in the evaluation of all remaining biocides. To date the users, manufacturers, have been rarely consulted with reliance on the information provided by registrants, the suppliers. CPCA has sought to change this with more involvement by manufactures to ensure the full effect of impacts from any decision is fully understood. It is incumbent upon CPCA and its members to ensure it understands the process and makes appropriate interventions in the data gathering process to ensure the decision-making process is fully informed.
The table below outlines all activities conducted by CPCA related to the issues within the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP). Anything that is marked as "Member Action Required" within the table will display in your dashboard if you are subscribing and following this issue. Look for important compliance dates and deadlines within the Compliance Calendar.