wallisindc-ga,
Thanks for your clarification...and for getting back to me so quickly.
Mexico has a long-standing history of laws aimed at environmental
protection, and created it's first national environmental agency in
the 1970's, at roughly the same time that the United States created
its own Environmental Protection Agency.
Although Mexico has key legal documents aimed at protecting the air,
water and land resources of the country, there is not a one to one
correspondence between environmental law in Mexico and that in the US.
This is particularly true in the case of chemicals and pesticide
registration and management.
The North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (commonly
known as the CEC) was created under NAFTA to help coordinate
environmental policies among the three NAFTA countries -- Mexico, the
US, and Canada. The CEC is an excellent source of information on the
environmental policies, laws and regulations of these three countries.
The CEC discussion of chemical/pesticides law in Mexico can be found here:
http://www.cec.org/pubs_info_resources/law_treat_agree/summary_enviro_law/publication/mxdoc.cfm?varlan=english&topic=11
I've included some excerpts that describe the main laws regarding TSCA
and FIFRA type of authorities:
==========
--Chemical substances and products are governed by a number of
overlapping laws and regulations and fall under the jurisdiction of
six different regulatory agencies...As a consequence, the legal regime
governing chemical substances remains one of the most complicated and
often confusing subject matters of Mexican environmental law.
--The two most important pieces of legislation governing chemical
substances and products are the General Health Law (Ley General de
Salud) and the Regulation under the General Health Law Regarding the
Sanitary Control of Activities, Facilities, Products and Services
(Reglamento de la Ley General de Salud en Materia de Control Sanitario
de Actividades, Establecimientos, Productos y Servicios) (hereinafter
Health Control Regulation). Together, the General Health Law and the
Health Control Regulation spell out the definition of pesticides,
fertilizers and toxic substances; establish a registration, licensing
and permitting regime for pesticides, fertilizers and toxic
substances; and provide for chemical substances labeling standards...
==========
So, the major pieces of law and regulation for chemicals and
pesticides are the broadly-written General Health Law, and the
specific Health Control Regulations for chemical substances (including
agricultural chemicals).
The CEC link that I gave you above goes into considerable detail as to
how new chemicals are brought onto market, pesticides are registered,
information is collected on toxic chemicals in commerce, and so on.
If you would like me to further summarize any of this information,
just let me know, and I'll be more than happy to do so.
The site also describes the responsibilities of multiple agencies in
Mexico for the creation of Normas Oficiales Mexicanas (NOMs), which
are essentially the regulations/standards that are derived from the
laws themselves. The Secretaria de Salud, known as SSA, has the lead
authority for creating NOMs for chemicals and pesticides. The SSA
website is at:
http://www.salud.gob.mx/
The Health Control Regulation already mentioned appears to be the key
NOM in the chemical safety area. Provisions of some of the key
features of the NOM's are described on the above-linked CEC page, and
include (a) New Substances: Pre-manufacture Stage, (b) Manufacture,
Import and Distribution, (c) Storage, Transport and Use, and (d)
Liability and Enforcement.
Again, let me know if you need additional information on this topic.
I've tried to keep this answer short and sweet, as you seemed to be
asking for. But before rating this answer, please let me know if you
need additional information on anything I've mentioned here. Just
post a Request for Clarification and let me know how I can assist you
further. I will be happy to do so.
All the best...
pafalafa-ga
search strategy: Used my own familiarity with the CEC and with US
environmental law to find descriptions of laws in Mexico on the CEC
website. |
