OTTAWA — Canada needs more transparency and better enforcement to protect Canadians from unlimited exposure to toxic chemicals like lead and cadmium, an Environmental Defense analysis said Wednesday.
The organization reported tests conducted on dozens of products purchased at popular Canadian dollar stores. One in four of the products tested tested positive for substances managed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Many of the findings were within acceptable limits, but the report said those limits were not strong enough.
The outer ring of a set of stereo headphones was found to have 24 times the legal limit of lead and five times the legal limit of cadmium.
The solder in the same headphones had 170 times what is considered safe on the outer parts of the headphones. The solder on a separate set of headphones with earplugs had 3,000 times the allowable amount of lead on accessible parts.
But solder is not covered by the regulations, a loophole that environmentalists are pushing to close.
Cassie Barker, toxics manager for Environmental Defense, said the lead inside can still be exposed if the products break or wear out.
“The way the kids are using the products, and you know they’re breaking things, and so the internal (lead) quickly becomes an external lead,” she said.
The toxic harms of lead poisoning have been documented for more than 50 years. It can cause significant cognitive and developmental delays in young children at high exposures and may pose risks of high blood pressure and kidney damage in adults. It is prohibited for use in gasoline, food cans and paints.
Cadmium, commonly found in batteries, coatings and plastic stabilizers, is a known carcinogen.
Barker said the headsets, which exceed the permitted limits of both metals, are evidence that monitoring and enforcement of toxics regulations needs to be strengthened.
“Obviously, retailers shouldn’t shirk their responsibility to have safe products on their shelves,” she said, but regulators leave “big loopholes” for dollar stores to jump through.
Other products that raised environmental concerns were food cans lined with bisphenol A, known as BPA. The chemical, which helps make plastic harder, was added to Canada’s toxics list in 2010 after studies linked it to prostate disease, breast cancer, infertility and behavioral problems in children. In the same year, it was banned for baby bottles and other plastic baby products.
But it’s still allowed in products like food cans, Barker said. Some companies have moved away from using the substance on its own, but 60 percent of the boxes tested by the organization contained it.
The report calls for Environment Canada to require companies to label all hazardous ingredients in products, including those hidden in electronics or used in packaging. It also recommends more regulatory measures and product testing so that harmful products can be identified before they hit store shelves.
Barker said the tests were done on items from dollar stores because such stores are often the only option for people with low incomes or in marginalized communities.
Environmental Defense provided its report to the companies whose stores it visited, including Dollar Tree and Dollarama. Dollar Tree said in a statement that a similar study in the United States two years ago led it to remove 17 chemicals from its products.
A statement from Dollarama said: “The safety of consumer products is our highest priority and we have rigorous processes and controls to monitor product safety and quality. The four Dollarama product categories identified in the report (stereo headphones, headphones, pencil case and activity tracker) comply with applicable Canadian product regulations and are safe for their intended use.”
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which governs toxic chemicals in Canada, is in the process of being updated.
Legislation that would enshrine the right to a healthy environment into law for the first time passed the Senate in the spring, although the law does not define what a “healthy environment” means.
Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeau said in an interview that he was open to further changes to the bill, which is expected to be debated in the House of Commons this fall.
Guilbeault said he had not yet read the Environmental Defense report and could not comment on its specific findings.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 31, 2022.
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