Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
New testing limits for pesticides are causing some frustration for producers and labs who say these limits are being set retroactively, reflecting poorly on an industry with a reputation for otherwise robust regulations.
In the wake of pesticide-related recalls from OrganiGram and Mettrum late last year and early this year, Health Canada recently announced new surprise testing for all licensed producers, as well as required testing for organigram and mettrum. Then, after Health Canada released the results of their spot-testing, showing trace amounts of pesticides on leaf samples from one producer, the regulator announced new required testing for all licensed producers.
As of May 17, there are currently only 17 approved pest control products for cannabis allowed by Health Canada, and all other products are entirely disallowed. The testing limits for all unauthorized products are being set at the lowest possible detectable levels based on currently available technology. Reportedly, Health Canada has now informed some licensed producers that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency Laboratory (PMRA) is using a reporting limit of 0.01 parts per million (ppm) for reporting pesticide residues found in fresh marihuana leaves, dried cannabis and cannabis oil.
However, the agency says in some instances, the reporting limits could be higher due to a number of factors such as: the characteristics of the active ingredient, the nature and complexity of the sample matrix, instrument sensitivity and analytical methodology. The PMRA is who Health Canada will use to verify the samples the regulator takes from various facilities to ensure compliance.
For reference, one ppm is one part in one million. 0.01 ppm is ten parts per billion (ppb). One ppm is comparable to one second in 11.5 days or four drops of ink in one 55-gallon barrel of water. Not all laboratories currently approved to test cannabis in Canada are able to provide a full pesticide array down to this level.
What these new testing standards entail still remains unclear, and this uncertainty is causing confusion and frustration among those producing cannabis, as well as the labs who can provide these kinds of tests, says Hubert Marceau, the Director of Development at Laboratoire PhytoChemia Inc. Based in Quebec, PhytoChemia is one of a handful of labs in Canada that are licensed to provide analytical testing for cannabis for licensed producers.
In the past, explains Marceau, licensed producers were essentially told to use the testing standards in the chosen pharmacopoeia, usually the European or US Pharmacopoeia, which have their own specific quality assurance standards, including testing limits for things like heavy metals, microbial impurities, moulds, some specific pesticides, etc. Now they are being held–retroactively in some cases–to new higher standards, which creates a lot of confusion and uncertainty, he says.
"I think we need to protect our patients in many different ways and our company is investing to make sure that we are able to support and help the LPs to make that mission real. I think it's healthy for the industry, I think it's healthy for the patients. -Sohil Mana, Vice President Eurofins Experchem Laboratories
"There seems to be a lot of confusion, actually, inside of Health Canada," says Marceau. "What this makes them look like is amateurs. And this is actually kind of sad, because Canada is currently a world leader in cannabis regulations, more than the US. And a thing like this kind of hurts the industry as a whole. It affects the trust of the consumer towards producers, which is something that is already, in some cases, strained, and it's also stressed the investor because it creates uncertainty. And it's also strained these companies to absorb the costs of these recalls.
"So by not being clear from the start, by not at least giving a head start to a company to make sure they are able to comply with what will be coming, they're creating uncertainty, which is bad for the industry and consumer as well."
Marceau says Phytochemia is not yet able to handle full pesticide testing, but they expect to be investing in new equipment in the next six months to offer those services.
One lab that says it is able to handle these new standards is Eurofins Experchem Laboratories in Ontario, says Eurofins Vice President Sohil Mana. Eurofins already handles a lot of analytical testing for licensed producers, and Mana says the company has recently invested over one million dollars in new equipment to be able to identify an array of hundreds of known pesticides down two the .01 ppm levels Health Canada is now reportedly requiring.
The company purchased a tandem liquid chromatography—mass spectrometer (LCMSMS) and a tandem gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GCMSMS). Read more on these methods here.
"A thing like this kind of hurts the industry as a whole. It affects the trust of the consumer towards producers." -Hubert Marceau, Director of Development at Laboratoire PhytoChemia Inc
Mana agrees that the lack of communication and consistency from the regulator has been challenging.
"This has been the problem from the beginning. They have not standardized what labs should be doing the testing, they have not standardized the methodology, they have not standardized the source of the standards. They haven't standardized anything.
"It's like you're on your own and try to figure it out, but we will criticize you every now and then for what you are doing. That's really the issue that Health Canada has to deal with: standardization."
Regardless of the confusion, Mana says he believes these new requirements are a good step forward. Even if pesticides like myclobutanil are allowed in food production, he says, until we know the effects of inhaling the products, it's important to set testing limits as low as possible.
"I think we need to protect our patients in many different ways and our company is investing to make sure that we are able to support and help the LPs to make that mission real. I think it's healthy for the industry, I think it's healthy for the patients. You don't really know the impact of smoking versus eating it. We don't know what that is. Nobody knows."
Chris Stone, the Quality Assurance Person at Broken Coast Cannabis, a licensed medical cannabis producer based on Vancouver Island, says he's not surprised by the new rules. While Health Canada has been taking the issue of pesticides much more seriously in the wake of recent recalls and the public pressure that has come with them, many within the industry had already been taking it upon themselves to address these concerns.
"We've seen, since some of the original pesticide recalls that came with Mettrum and OrganiGram, that there's been this kind of rolling snowball of known concern around pesticides in the industry. So I think the fact that it came down to testing being a requirement is not too surprising. I certainly know both Cannabis Canada and its member companies as well as a number of independent LPs had already started moving in that direction of doing pesticide testing."
Cannabis Canada is an industry organization with 17 licensed producer members, including Broken Coast and OrganiGram.
One other Cannabis Canada member, Hydropothecary, issued a recall this week based on these new Health Canada standards, despite the company releasing their own testing results showing no detectable levels of myclobutanil down to .08 ppm, the limit prescribed by the pharmacopoeia the company had previously used based on their approved methods.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Health Canada rushes to correct lack of pesticide testing for cannabis - Lift News
Author: David Brown
Contact: Contact - Lift News
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Lift News
In the wake of pesticide-related recalls from OrganiGram and Mettrum late last year and early this year, Health Canada recently announced new surprise testing for all licensed producers, as well as required testing for organigram and mettrum. Then, after Health Canada released the results of their spot-testing, showing trace amounts of pesticides on leaf samples from one producer, the regulator announced new required testing for all licensed producers.
As of May 17, there are currently only 17 approved pest control products for cannabis allowed by Health Canada, and all other products are entirely disallowed. The testing limits for all unauthorized products are being set at the lowest possible detectable levels based on currently available technology. Reportedly, Health Canada has now informed some licensed producers that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency Laboratory (PMRA) is using a reporting limit of 0.01 parts per million (ppm) for reporting pesticide residues found in fresh marihuana leaves, dried cannabis and cannabis oil.
However, the agency says in some instances, the reporting limits could be higher due to a number of factors such as: the characteristics of the active ingredient, the nature and complexity of the sample matrix, instrument sensitivity and analytical methodology. The PMRA is who Health Canada will use to verify the samples the regulator takes from various facilities to ensure compliance.
For reference, one ppm is one part in one million. 0.01 ppm is ten parts per billion (ppb). One ppm is comparable to one second in 11.5 days or four drops of ink in one 55-gallon barrel of water. Not all laboratories currently approved to test cannabis in Canada are able to provide a full pesticide array down to this level.
What these new testing standards entail still remains unclear, and this uncertainty is causing confusion and frustration among those producing cannabis, as well as the labs who can provide these kinds of tests, says Hubert Marceau, the Director of Development at Laboratoire PhytoChemia Inc. Based in Quebec, PhytoChemia is one of a handful of labs in Canada that are licensed to provide analytical testing for cannabis for licensed producers.
In the past, explains Marceau, licensed producers were essentially told to use the testing standards in the chosen pharmacopoeia, usually the European or US Pharmacopoeia, which have their own specific quality assurance standards, including testing limits for things like heavy metals, microbial impurities, moulds, some specific pesticides, etc. Now they are being held–retroactively in some cases–to new higher standards, which creates a lot of confusion and uncertainty, he says.
"I think we need to protect our patients in many different ways and our company is investing to make sure that we are able to support and help the LPs to make that mission real. I think it's healthy for the industry, I think it's healthy for the patients. -Sohil Mana, Vice President Eurofins Experchem Laboratories
"There seems to be a lot of confusion, actually, inside of Health Canada," says Marceau. "What this makes them look like is amateurs. And this is actually kind of sad, because Canada is currently a world leader in cannabis regulations, more than the US. And a thing like this kind of hurts the industry as a whole. It affects the trust of the consumer towards producers, which is something that is already, in some cases, strained, and it's also stressed the investor because it creates uncertainty. And it's also strained these companies to absorb the costs of these recalls.
"So by not being clear from the start, by not at least giving a head start to a company to make sure they are able to comply with what will be coming, they're creating uncertainty, which is bad for the industry and consumer as well."
Marceau says Phytochemia is not yet able to handle full pesticide testing, but they expect to be investing in new equipment in the next six months to offer those services.
One lab that says it is able to handle these new standards is Eurofins Experchem Laboratories in Ontario, says Eurofins Vice President Sohil Mana. Eurofins already handles a lot of analytical testing for licensed producers, and Mana says the company has recently invested over one million dollars in new equipment to be able to identify an array of hundreds of known pesticides down two the .01 ppm levels Health Canada is now reportedly requiring.
The company purchased a tandem liquid chromatography—mass spectrometer (LCMSMS) and a tandem gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GCMSMS). Read more on these methods here.
"A thing like this kind of hurts the industry as a whole. It affects the trust of the consumer towards producers." -Hubert Marceau, Director of Development at Laboratoire PhytoChemia Inc
Mana agrees that the lack of communication and consistency from the regulator has been challenging.
"This has been the problem from the beginning. They have not standardized what labs should be doing the testing, they have not standardized the methodology, they have not standardized the source of the standards. They haven't standardized anything.
"It's like you're on your own and try to figure it out, but we will criticize you every now and then for what you are doing. That's really the issue that Health Canada has to deal with: standardization."
Regardless of the confusion, Mana says he believes these new requirements are a good step forward. Even if pesticides like myclobutanil are allowed in food production, he says, until we know the effects of inhaling the products, it's important to set testing limits as low as possible.
"I think we need to protect our patients in many different ways and our company is investing to make sure that we are able to support and help the LPs to make that mission real. I think it's healthy for the industry, I think it's healthy for the patients. You don't really know the impact of smoking versus eating it. We don't know what that is. Nobody knows."
Chris Stone, the Quality Assurance Person at Broken Coast Cannabis, a licensed medical cannabis producer based on Vancouver Island, says he's not surprised by the new rules. While Health Canada has been taking the issue of pesticides much more seriously in the wake of recent recalls and the public pressure that has come with them, many within the industry had already been taking it upon themselves to address these concerns.
"We've seen, since some of the original pesticide recalls that came with Mettrum and OrganiGram, that there's been this kind of rolling snowball of known concern around pesticides in the industry. So I think the fact that it came down to testing being a requirement is not too surprising. I certainly know both Cannabis Canada and its member companies as well as a number of independent LPs had already started moving in that direction of doing pesticide testing."
Cannabis Canada is an industry organization with 17 licensed producer members, including Broken Coast and OrganiGram.
One other Cannabis Canada member, Hydropothecary, issued a recall this week based on these new Health Canada standards, despite the company releasing their own testing results showing no detectable levels of myclobutanil down to .08 ppm, the limit prescribed by the pharmacopoeia the company had previously used based on their approved methods.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Health Canada rushes to correct lack of pesticide testing for cannabis - Lift News
Author: David Brown
Contact: Contact - Lift News
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Lift News