Canada and the US have released a framework to improve their alignment and collaboration on the risk assessment of chemicals.

In 2011, the Canadian and US governments launched the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council to facilitate closer cooperation between the two countries to develop more effective approaches to regulation. Last year, they committed to continue their dialogue on regulatory issues and pursue shared regulatory outcomes that reduce trade impediments, reduce costs, increase economic efficiency, and streamline regulations without compromising health, safety, and environmental standards.

The overall goal of the assessment collaboration framework is to facilitate and enhance collaboration between the three relevant governmental organizations – the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada — for the risk-based assessment of chemicals within their respective legislative and regulatory context.

Stakeholder engagement and broad communication to the public are additional goals of the framework. The framework will enable enhanced alignment on risk assessment of chemicals, including identification of risk assessment priorities, information gathering and sharing, risk assessment methodologies, work sharing and joint assessments.

More details about the framework are available on the Canadian government’s website.

Reported by Leslie Burt