Derogations tracker or eased regulations

Canada

Health Canada is temporarily easing bilingual labelling and other information requirements for certain cleaning products imported from the US. The interim policy is intended to address potential shortages of cleaning products regulated under Canada’s Hazardous Products Act (HPA), Hazardous Products Regulations (HPR) and Hazardous Materials Information Review Act (HMIRA).

Importers must still inform Health Canada and meet other information requirements. The agency will also maintain a list of products subject to the interim policy.

US

The US EPA has compiled an overview of the actions it has taken and available resources regarding disinfection against the novel coronavirus. To date, the agency said it has listed "nearly 400 products" qualified to be effective against coronavirus Covid-19.

The US Food and Drug Administration reiterated the need to add denaturants to alcohol-based hand sanitisers while giving flexibility to manufacturers to register such products with the agency. It said it had received several questions from industry regarding the use of denaturants, which render products less appealing to ingest.

"It is important that hand sanitiser[s] be manufactured in a way that makes them unpalatable to people, especially young children, and that they are appropriately labelled to discourage accidental or intentional ingestion," the FDA said in an update. 

Philippines

The Filipino Food and Drug Administration has updated its list of hand sanitisers and rubbing alcohol products that have been legally registered with government agencies. 

The FDA has advised consumers to consult this list – which now holds 448 products – when buying disinfectants, in order to avoid the counterfeit or unregistered biocides that have entered the market during the pandemic. 

Turkey

Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority has suspended the obligation for refineries and their distributors to blend gasoline with ethanol.

The measure, which will last for three months, became effective on 13 March. It is meant to free up ethanol for the production of disinfectants during the pandemic.

This does not, however, constitute a ban on blending gasoline and ethanol, the authority has said.

Germany

The German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) has made it easier for pharmacies to notify the compounding and sale of disinfectant products.

They will be able to do so by filling out a brief form when they have compounded a batch of disinfectant. Normally, they would have to provide the BfR with information about the product, detailed enough to allow poison centres to react quickly to disinfectant poisonings.

This form is only for use by pharmacies and does not affect any approval procedures for chemical or pharmaceutical companies, the BfR noted.

Supply chain concerns

Namibia 

Namibia plans to begin manufacturing its own hand sanitisers, as a result of other countries restricting exports of the products. On 2 April the southern African country published standards, setting out quality, safety and labelling requirements for alcohol-based hand sanitisers. It then withdrew them and republished them on 21 April as draft standards, with a comment period for industry and notification to the WTO. 

"Due to the global pandemic and … measures individual countries have taken to limit exports of alcohol-based hand sanitisers to Namibia, it is an important national security objective towards the protection of human health and safety that Namibia distils its own alcohol and prepares according to the relevant standards alcohol based hand sanitisers as a matter of urgency," the notification said.

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