Canada Health Portal: another resource for environmental health information

The Canada Health Portal seems to provide some pretty useful links, including one to the Existing Substances Division (ExSD) of the Environmental Contaminants Bureau of the Safe Environments Programme of Health Canada (now there's a mouthful). ExSD's site is pretty unfriendly as it doesn't seem to be database-driven; however, it does include some good information on how a chemical is defined as toxic, and what the implications of this decision are. They seem to have a staff of about 30: great. That'll keep us safe.

Oh ya, I forgot about Environment Canada's side: they've got something called the Existing Substances Branch (last updated in May 2003!!) for ecological risk assessment. Wonder how many staff they have...

Then there's the CEPA Environmental Registry: check this out if you're looking for a "what's new" on activities related to the Canadian Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA) Act, 1999. At least this page seems to be current. Also links to a page on Public Participation, as well as Substances Lists, and Enforcement and Compliance