The Department of Environment yesterday introduced the most sweeping lead ban since Parliament outlawed the retail sale of leaded gasoline in 1990. Toxic lead wheel weights are now restricted, but regulators stopped short of banning hunters’ lead ammunition and fishing jigs and sinkers, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“Lead wheel weights are lost on roads and highways every year and generate lead dust,” the department wrote in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement. “This dust can build up in soil, enter waterways through runoff or be inhaled. These pathways of exposure to lead dust can give rise to adverse human health and environmental impacts.”.The department said effective Feb. 15, 2024 under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act it will outlaw the manufacture and import of lead wheel weights without a federal permit. Weights are used in some 60.5 million vehicle tires on Canadian roads. “About 110 tonnes of lead wheel weights routinely fall off vehicles every year in Canada,” wrote staff..The new regulation followed nine years of consultation with auto dealers, tire shops, scrapyard operators and other sectors. “In the last decade we’ve learned more about lead toxicity, particularly around children’s neurodevelopment,” Dr. Laurie Chan, Canada Research Chair in Toxicology at the University of Ottawa, said in an earlier interview. “We now believe there is no safe level of lead. Any level can cause harm to the brain, particularly in young children.”.Regulators previously restricted lead in household paint in 1976 and abolished the retail sale of leaded gasoline in 1990. The environment department in 2016 studied what it identified as another source of lead poisoning, fishing jigs and ammunition..Earlier research dating from the 1990s blamed lead jigs for loon deaths in Eastern Canada. Cabinet since 1997 has restricted the use of lead jigs and sinkers by anglers in national parks and wildlife areas..Access To Information records subsequently disclosed the department in 2017 dropped all proposals to ban lead products used in hunting and fishing. “The Government of Canada does not currently intend to restrict the use of lead in fishing and hunting activities in Canada,” said a memo Risk Management Strategy For Lead..“These are activities under provincial jurisdiction,” said the memo. “Opponents will argue that the higher cost of alternatives will put them out of reach of hunters and anglers who will then stop purchasing and, in some cases, stop fishing and hunting which will trickle down to guides and outfitters.”
