Ottawa-The fertilizer industry in Canada supports new federal restrictions on the sale of ammonium nitrate and eight other chemicals, according to the Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI). The regulations were announced March 20 by Natural Resources Canada and also include nitromethane, hydrogen peroxide, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, potassium chlorate, sodium chlorate, and potassium perchlorate, some of which are used to make fertilizer or as fertilizer itself. Anyone who sells the listed materials must be registered with the Explosives Regulatory Division and comply with security measures for storage, record keeping, and customer identification starting June 1 for ammonium nitrate and March 1, 2009, for the other restricted chemicals. “Our government believes that new controls on explosives precursors are necessary to reduce the risk of terrorist acts,” said Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day. “This list of chemicals was drawn up on the basis of expert scientific and security analyses and includes chemicals that pose the greatest risk, and therefore, require regulatory control.” CFI President Roger Larsen responded, “CFI has worked in close cooperation with the explosives branch of Natural Resources Canada on the development of the new regulations while at the same time implementing an industry code of practice for the safe storage and handling of ammonium nitrate. We encourage everyone involved in the agriculture industry to be in full compliance well before the regulations start coming into effect on June 1. Security is everyone’s business. Fertilizer companies have been essentially in compliance for a number of years under the voluntary code of practice. These regulations will strengthen our code and are consistent with security measures in other countries.” Larsen noted that ammonium nitrate is the only one of the materials commonly used as a fertilizer and is the most significant part of the regulations. Along with Natural Resources Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the industry implemented the code for secure storage, transportation, and sale of this fertilizer more than two years ago. CFI and agri-retailers have distributed thousands of copies of a brochure and poster to educate stakeholders on these measures as part of the On Guard for Canada program, stressing the need for security, maintaining sales records, and alerting law enforcement of suspicious activity by using a toll-free RCMP hotline, 1-800-387-0020. The government will provide registration and annual reporting procedures and services, and will undertake outreach activities to raise awareness of the regulations with both sellers and end-users. NRCan will work in partnership with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to undertake compliance inspections for ammonium nitrate utilizing the cross-country network of CFIA inspectors.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain