PT06 Contaminants-Receptor Interactions: New Challenges
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday, 11 November 2003
(PT081) Proposed Assessment Approach for Incorporating the Endocrine Disrupting Potential of Substances into the New Substances Program under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).
Domey, N1, Lapointe, M1, Lawuyi, R1, Atkinson, A1, Mekenyan, O2, 1 New Substances Branch, Environment Canada, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada2 Laboratory of Mathematical Chemistry, Bourgas, Bulgaria
ABSTRACT- The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) requires that all new substances be assessed for "toxicity" as defined by the legislation. Proponents of new substances for the Canadian market are required to provide detailed information and test data prior to the commencement of any manufacture or import. For new substances, one of the data elements to be submitted is ecotoxicity tests. However, currently, there are no ecotoxicity tests in the New Substances Notification Regulations that address endocrine disrupting potential. Section 44(4) of CEPA imposes a legal obligation on the Ministers of Environment and Health to "conduct research or studies relating to hormone disrupting substances, methods relating to their detection, methods to determine their actual or likely short-term or long-term effect on the environment and human health, and preventative, control and abatement measures to deal with those substances to protect the environment and human health." To this end, Canada is involved in the examination and validation of test methods currently being conducted by the U.S. EPA and OECD to address endocrine disrupting potential. Environment Canada continues to work diligently with stakeholders nationally and internationally to develop internationally accepted, validated screening and testing protocols to assess new substances for endocrine disruption potential. Currently, Environment Canada is examining the feasibility of collecting information on - substances suspected of eliciting endocrine disrupting effects and how information on such analogues can be incorporated into its regulatory programs. The applicability of structure-activity relationships (SARs) or analogues to identify substances will be investigated as they become available. Environment Canada′s current approach to addressing endocrine disrupting potential of new substances will be discussed. In addition, the development and validation of international screening test for EDSs will be discussed within the context of the new substances program
Key words: disrupting, endocrine, oasis, receptor