Scope
Canada’s Surface Coating Materials Regulations, SOR/2016-193, apply to surface coating materials and to certain removable stickers, films, and surface coatings applied to accessible parts of specified products. The loaded heavy-metal rows cover total lead and total mercury content limits.
Exact limit and units
| Metal | Product scope | Limit | Unit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | Surface coating material | 90 | mg/kg total lead | dried sample of surface coating material |
| Mercury | Surface coating material | 10 | mg/kg total mercury | dried sample of surface coating material |
| Lead | Sticker, film, or other removable similar material, or surface coating material, applied to accessible parts of furniture, products for children, pencils, and artists brushes | 90 | mg/kg total lead | applied removable material or surface coating material |
How tested
Sections 2 and 5 state that dried samples of surface coating material are tested using methods that conform to good laboratory practices. Section 6 applies the same good-laboratory-practice testing condition to the removable or applied material on accessible parts of the listed product classes.
Enforcement posture
The regulations are statutory Canadian consumer-product rules under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act framework. Surface coating materials and covered applied stickers, films, or coatings exceeding the listed total metal limits are not compliant with the regulation.
History of changes
SOR/2016-193 was registered in 2016. The local Justice Laws PDF states it is current to 14 June 2026 and last amended on 19 December 2022.
How it compares
The 90 mg/kg lead ceiling matches the modern North American lead-paint limit pattern for surface coatings. The Canadian rule also contains an explicit total mercury limit for surface coating materials, which is separate from the lead limits.
Sources
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |