Liste des substances d'intérêt prioritaire, rapport d'évaluation nº 2 : effluents des usines de pâte blanchie

Abstract

Worldwide technical literature, together with unpublished information on effluents from pulp mills employing chlorine bleaching, have been studied to determine whether these effluents are "toxic", as defined under Section 11 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), to the environment, to the environment on which human health depends, or to human health. The impacts of chlorinated "dioxins" and "furans" were not examined specifically in this report, even though they are found in bleached pulp mill effluents, since they were specifically nominated to the Priority Substances List for independent assessment. Total Suspended Solids (T88) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), characteristic of pulp mill effluents, are currently regulated under the Fisheries Act as deleterious substances; therefore, they were not examined specifically in this assessment of effluents from bleached pulp mills. This report is an assessment of the risk associated with the release of chlorinated organic material in bleached pulp mill effluents and therefore of the need to invoke the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. lt also contains an overview of CEPA, the risk assessment criteria employed, a brief description of the scope of the investigation, an overview of factual data, and the conclusions of the risk assessment.