BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1930| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1930 Author: De La Torre (D), et al Amended: 7/15/10 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE ENV. QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/28/10 AYES: Simitian, Runner, Corbett, Hancock, Lowenthal, Pavley, Strickland SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 10-0, 8/2/10 AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Ashburn, Corbett, Emmerson, Leno, Price, Wolk, Wyland, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 6/2/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Hazardous waste: glass beads SOURCE : Potter Industries, Inc. DIGEST : This bill prohibits the manufacture or sale of glass beads for use in certain kinds of blasting, if the beads contain more than 75 parts per million of arsenic or 100 parts per million of lead. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Pursuant to several Health and Safety Code statutes, CONTINUED AB 1930 Page 2 bans or regulates lead content in a variety of consumer products, such as candy, toys, tableware, packaging, children's jewelry, plumbing, and glass beverage bottles. 2. Pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly referred to as Proposition 65, prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing people to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without first giving clear and reasonable warning. The Governor must publish a list of chemicals "known to the State of California" to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Both lead and arsenic are included on this list. No person can knowingly discharge or release those same chemicals into any source of drinking water. Specified exemptions are allowed, such as when the exposure or discharge would not pose a significant risk of cancer, or, for chemicals that cause reproductive toxicity, would not have observable effect at 1,000 times the level in question. 3. Requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), by January 1, 2011, to adopt regulations to establish a process to identify and prioritize chemicals or chemical ingredients in consumer products that may be considered a "chemical of concern," in accordance with a review process, as specified. (Section 25251 et seq.) 4. Requires DTSC, on or before January 1, 2011, to adopt regulations to establish a process to evaluate chemicals of concern, and their potential alternatives, in consumer products in order to determine how best to limit exposure or to reduce the level of hazard posed by a chemical of concern, as specified. This bill: 1. Prohibits the manufacture or sale of glass beads that have more than 75 parts per million of arsenic or 100 parts per million of lead, if the glass beads are going to be used with pressure, suction, or wet- or dry- type blasting equipment. CONTINUED AB 1930 Page 3 2. Requires each container of glass beads sold in the state for surface preparation that will be used with pressure, suction, or wet- or dry- type blasting equipment to be labeled with the arsenic and lead limits required under the bill. 3. Specifies that it does not limit or supersede any authority under the state's ongoing "Green Chemistry" initiative (AB 1879 [Feuer], Chapter 599, Statutes of 2008) through which DTSC is required to prioritize chemicals for review and regulation to protect human health. 4. Sunsets on January 1, 2015. Comments Purpose of the bill . According to the author, "Some countries, including China, produce glass sphere with high levels of arsenic and lead. While it is illegal to use these toxic spheres in China, they are imported for use in California and other states. Without a standard, these foreign spheres can continue to be sold in California to businesses that are completely unaware of the danger." The author continues, "In order to protect individuals and the environment, AB 1930 will conform California to the U.S. military standard, preventing the manufacture and sale of glass beads containing an excess of 75 ppm arsenic and 100 ppm lead, by weight." NOTE: Please refer to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee analysis for further background information. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund CONTINUED AB 1930 Page 4 Enforcement costs $27 $107 $71Special* * Hazardous Waste Control Account SUPPORT : (Verified 8/11/10) Potter Industries, Inc. (source) American Glass Bead Manufacturers' Association Chemical Industry Council of California Swarco Industries Inc. OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/11/10) Department of Toxic Substances Control Fair Glass Bead Market Access Coalition ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the bill's sponsor, Potter Industries, Inc.: "Assembly Bill 1930 sets a standard for the manufacturing and sale of glass spheres containing high levels of arsenic and lead based on the standard used by the U.S. military. "Glass beads are pulverized when they are blown out of an air compressor to treat surfaces or for other industrial purposes. The resulting dust, containing excessive levels of heavy metals, is inhaled by employees or blown into the air potentially contaminating soil and/or water. The U.S. military recognized the danger of glass beads containing toxic levels of arsenic and lead and established a standard to ensure that soldiers, civilians, and the environment were safe from contamination." The sponsor refers to a briefing written by an internal scientist, Dr. Ufuk Senturk, who writes, "Despite the common public perception that glasses are inert, as typically referenced for their use as toxic waste containment, scientific literature, as explained above, shows that glasses do leach and release toxic ingredients, such as arsenic and lead. This is evidenced for commercial CONTINUED AB 1930 Page 5 grade soda-lime-silicate glasses, where arsenic is shown to leach up to 75% of its initial content when exposed to basic pH conditions. Enhanced leaching under acidic conditions is also known for soda-lime-silicate glasses (as reported by Clark et al.)." ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Fair Glass Bead Market Access Coalition (FGBMAC) writes: "The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Materials first examined this issue in 2006. The corporate sponsor of A.B. 1930 asked the subcommittee to enact regulations restricting the source of recycled glass cullet for bead manufacturing to North American sources. That effort was opposed by the Subcommittee and other domestic providers/ customers of glass beads. This same manufacturer subsequently changed tactics away from attempting to limit the source of glass cullet and instead began proposing to limit the heavy metal content of glass beads to 200 ppm arsenic, 200 ppm antimony and 200 ppm lead. In 2007, the Subcommittee decided to empanel a task force led by Eileen Sheehy of the New Jersey Department of Transportation to further review the issue. That research, referenced earlier, is poised to be released in a presentation to the subcommittee at their annual meeting in August, 2010. "Members of the FGBMAC have worked with the New Jersey researchers to provide them with glass bead samples to assist in their work. We are willing to support and see enacted the heavy metal content levels that would be proposed as a result of this peer-reviewed research. It is our expectation that these limits will not be confined to lead, but may include a number of heavy metals including arsenic, barium and antimony." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, CONTINUED AB 1930 Page 6 Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Lieu, Audra Strickland, Vacancy TSM:mw 8/11/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED