Toxic inaction

The Globe and Mail reports that the Cons' much-ballyhooed move to regulate chemicals in fact does absolutely nothing to reduce the current availability of one of the major toxic chemical groups involved:

A group of chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers that are widely used as flame retardants are so harmful Environment Canada has added them to the country's list of toxic chemicals and wants manufacturers banned from making them.

Environment Canada is proposing a ban on two formulations no longer made in North America, but it is allowing continued use of the most common type.

Despite these indications of potential harm, the most widely made type of the flame retardants, called decaPBDE, will continue to be used in Canada if it is imported in consumer products and by industry.

Although PBDEs are used in Canada, they aren't made in the country, and environmentalists say any ban on domestic manufacturing would be meaningless if the government provides a huge loophole for continued public exposure through imports...

“By not comprehensively banning all PBDEs, notably the decaPBDEs, the Harper government is regulating the status quo, essentially avoiding the most serious aspects of this problem and giving the Canadian public a mistaken impression of action,” said Kathleen Cooper, a senior researcher with the Canadian Environmental Law Association...

Under Environment Canada's proposal, two mixtures of the chemical will be banned from use for health and environment reasons, although this move will have almost no consequences. The major manufacturer of the mixtures, Great Lakes Chemical Corp., voluntarily agreed to phase them out in 2004 under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The apparent excuse is that the current regulation is a "first step" toward further action. But there doesn't seem to be any factual basis for a claim that it can be considered a step of any kind. That is, except in the PR department - where the reality that Canadians will continue to be exposed to toxins thanks to the Cons' own choices seems far too likely to receive less attention than the Cons' initial claim to have clamped down.