Confidential Business Information (CBI)

Description

For hazardous products, WHMIS requires suppliers and employers to:

  • Disclose the identity of hazardous chemicals meeting disclosure requirements and the hazards of the product.
  • Provide safe use and handling information on a safety data sheet (SDS) and label.

To protect confidential business information (CBI), there are 2 mechanisms to exempt suppliers and/or employers from some of these requirements:

  • Health Canada is responsible for administering one of these mechanisms through the review of claims for exemption (see next section for more information).
  • The Hazardous Products Regulations also provides suppliers the option of using prescribed concentration ranges to mask concentrations or concentration ranges that are CBI.

Claims for Exemption

The following information can be claimed for exemption by suppliers or employers:

  • chemical identity of an ingredient, substance or material (including impurities and stabilizing solvents)
  • concentration or concentration range of an ingredient, substance, or material
  • the name of any toxicological study that identifies the ingredient, substance or material

Employers may also claim:

  • product identifier (for example, chemical name, trade name)
  • other means of identification information
  • information that could be used to identify the supplier

Brief Overview of Process

Following receipt of a complete application for a claim for exemption, Health Canada will review the information and register the claim if it meets the filing requirements, including receipt of payment. The claimant will receive a Hazardous Materials Information Review Act (HMIRA) Registry Number (RN).

This HMIRA RN allows the supplier to sell or import, or the employer to use, the product with the CBI hidden. Next, Health Canada will assess the validity of the claim according to the criteria outlined in section 3 of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Regulations (HMIRR).

If the claim is determined to be valid or partially valid (in other words, some of the CBI requested in the claim meets the criteria), the supplier may continue selling or importing, or an employer may continue using, the product without disclosing the exempted information for which the claim is considered valid for a period of 3 years, after which the exemption expires. At that time, the supplier or employer must refile the claim if they wish to continue to protect the CBI, and a new HMIRA RN will be issued if the refiled claim meets filing requirements.

Health Canada will subject all products with a 3-year exemption to a prioritization process. This process is based on criteria that ranks products based on potential risk factors related to worker health and safety.

The prioritization process helps Health Canada determine which products to select for an in-depth compliance review. Prioritization will be complemented by other reasons to select a product for review, including random sampling.

Suppliers (or employers) are responsible for ensuring that their product's safety data sheet (SDS) (and label, if applicable) are compliant, whether it is prioritized for in-depth compliance review or not.

Protection of CBI

Other than the chemical name claimed CBI of a chemical, which is required to be replaced with a generic chemical name, the confidential business information (CBI) may be replaced with wording such as:

  • CBI
  • Proprietary
  • Trade secret
  • The HMIRA RN

The SDS and/or label must show the HMIRA RN and the date filed (date on which the HMIRA RN was assigned) or the date granted (date of the claim validity determination granting the 3-year exemption), as appropriate, with a direct link to the replacement information. Suppliers (or employers) who apply to withhold CBI must continue to meet label and SDS requirements. These requirements include the details of any safety precautions workers need to take when using the product and the first-aid treatment required in the case of exposure.

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