Toxic Substances

• Author: Jamie Benidickson
• Pages: 275-300

275

CHAPTER 13

TOXIC SUBSTANCES

A. THE TOXICS CHALLENGE IN CANADA

The phrase from sawdust to toxic blobs has been used to describe a long-

term transformation in the Canadian pollution-control agenda.1 Public

concern with a generalized and traditional understanding of pollution

(visible emissions and discharges presumed to decompose without

harm if released at “safe” levels) has given way to heightened anxiety

over long-term threats to human and environmental health from cer-

tain types of contaminants. The concept of toxic substances offers the

prospect of establishing some priorities for new regulatory and remed-

ial efforts. Numerous American initiatives and references to “virtual

elimination,” to “zero discharge of toxic chemicals,” and to the pre-

cautionary principle are increasingly part of these developments. For

its part, Europe has proceeded further with the formulation of an in-

itiative known as REACH for Registration, Evaluation, and Authoriza-

tion of Chemicals, a program th at will increasingly inf‌luence chemical s

management around the world.2

1 D Chappell, From Sawdus t to Toxic Blobs: A Considerat ion of Sanctioning Strat-

egies to Combat Pollution in Can ada (Ottawa: Supply & Service s, 1989).

2 MA Orella na, “Europe’s REACH: A New Chapter in Inter national Chemical s

Law” (2006) 6 Sustai nable Development Law and Policy 21; Regulat ion (EC)

No 1907/2006 of the European Pa rliament and of the Council of 18 Decemb er

2006, online: ht tp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriS erv/LexUriSer v.do?uri=oj:l:2006:

396:0001:0849:en:pdf.

ENVIRONMENTAL L AW

276

Designation of persistent toxics for special attention was an im-

portant step in the process of ack nowledging that, if the environment is

contaminated, so, in time, will be the species, including humans, who

occupy the planet. But labelling the category of persistent toxics does

not lessen the challenge of identify ing the characteristics and ultimate-

ly determining the contents of that category. In general, concern with

toxics focuses on substances that are highly resistant to natural pro-

cesses of degradation even as they disperse through air, water, and soil.

They bioaccumulate within food chain s, but even in trace amounts they

may be capable of bringing about biological changes.3

Toxic chemicals, although they are understood to pose signif‌icant

risks to ecosystems and to human health, have often resisted precise

def‌inition and asses sment. It has sometimes been diff‌icult to determine

exactly what human and environmental harm is caused by particular

toxic substances. Substances differ in degree of toxicity and in terms

of the nature of their impact, as well as in the timing in which those

consequences appear. Moreover, toxicity varies in relation to concen-

tration, length, and conditions of exp osure; some segments of the popu-

lation, children and the elderly, for example, may be more vulnerable

than others. To complicate understanding still further, toxicity may

be inf‌luenced by the presence of other substances in the environment,

with such combinations and their synergistic consequences remaining

largely unknown. Yet, during the 1970s and 1980s, toxic contamina-

tion was recognized as a signif‌icantly more widespread and intractable

problem than previously suspected or acknowledged.4 Reference to a

few much-discussed toxics s erves as a reminder of recent developments

and provides a partial setting for consideration of legal initiatives.

The displacement in 1988 of some 3,500 people as a consequence of

PCB storage problems at Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Quebec, demonstrated

the vulnerability of urban populations to toxic concentrations, just as

the 1985 PCB spill on the Trans-Canada Highway near Kenora, On-

tario, and revelations concerning the contamination of numerous Arc-

tic sites and mammal populations demonstrated that remoteness was

no guarantee of immunity. Although PCBs were already the subject of

3 Environment Ca nada, “Management of Toxic Substance s,” online: ww w.ec.gc.ca/

toxiques-toxics/default.asp?lang=En&n=97324D33-1.

4 With advances i n science and in measurement te chniques, linkages b etween

exposure a nd health impacts have often b ecome more apparent. See T McClena-

ghan et al, “Env ironmental Standard S etting and Children’s Healt h in Canada”

(2003) 12 J Envtl L & Prac 245; D Davis, When Sm oke Ran Like Water: Tales of

Environmental Decep tion and the Battle Against Pollution (New York: Basic Books,

2002).