BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 757|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 757
Author: Pavley (D)
Amended: 6/23/09
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 4/20/09
AYES: Simitian, Corbett, Hancock, Lowenthal, Pavley
NOES: Runner, Ashburn
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 4-1, 4/28/09
AYES: Corbett, Harman, Florez, Leno
NOES: Walters
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 21-13, 5/18/09
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, DeSaulnier,
Ducheny, Hancock, Harman, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal,
Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Simitian,
Steinberg, Wiggins, Wolk, Yee
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Benoit, Cogdill, Cox, Denham,
Dutton, Hollingsworth, Huff, Runner, Strickland, Walters,
Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Florez, Oropeza, Romero,
Wright, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-28, 9/2/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Lead wheel weights
SOURCE : Center for Environmental Health
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Clean Water Action
DIGEST : This bill prohibits a person from manufacturing,
selling, or installing a wheel weight that contains more
than 0.1 percent lead by weight and enacts specified civil
and administrative penalties for violations of the
prohibition.
Assembly Amendments add clarifying language relating to
lead alternative wheel weights.
ANALYSIS :
Existing Law
1.Pursuant to several Health and Safety code statutes, bans
or regulates lead content in a variety of consumer
products, such as candy, toys, tableware, packaging,
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 expose people to a chemical
known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive
toxicity without first giving clear and reasonable
warning. Requires the Governor to publish a list of
chemicals "known to the State of California" to cause
cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Provides that no person shall knowingly discharge or
release those same chemicals into any source of drinking
water. Allows for specified exemptions such as when the
exposure or discharge would not pose a significant risk
of cancer, or, for chemicals that cause reproductive
toxicity, would have not 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.
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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 list exposure
or to reduce the level of hazard posed by a chemical of
concern, as specified.
This bill:
1.Prohibits the manufacture, sale, or installation in
California of wheel weights that contain more than 0.1%
lead.
2.Authorizes a court to enjoin a person who violates or
threatens to violate this prohibition.
3.Authorizes administrative and civil penalties for
violation of this prohibition:
A. Provides that a person who violates this
prohibition is subject to administrative or civil
penalties not to exceed $2,500/day for each
violation.
B. Requires a variety of factors to be considered in
determining penalties such as the nature, extent, and
willfulness of the violation, and deterrent effect of
the penalty on the violator and regulated community
as a whole.
C. Requires penalties to be deposited in the
Hazardous Waste Control Account for the DTSC to
implement and enforce this prohibition.
4. Provides that if an alternative to lead contained in
wheel weights is identified as a chemical of concern,
pursuant to the Green Chemistry law, then the lead
alternative shall be subject to the prescribed
evaluation process to best limit its exposure to the
public or reduce the level of hazard it poses to human
health or the environment.
5. Provides that nothing in this legislation shall prohibit
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or restrict the authority of the DTSC, pursuant to the
Green Chemistry law, to take actions on a chemical or
chemical ingredient in wheel weights, including, but not
limited to, an alternative to lead.
Comments
Effects of Lead on Public Health . The United States
Environmental Protection Agency considers lead and lead
compounds "persistent bioaccumulative toxic" chemicals
because of their toxicity, presence in the environment for
long period of time, not readily destroyable, and ability
to accumulate in body tissue. Lead exposure can be linked
to lower intelligence, behavior problems, nervous system
disorders, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, kidney
problems, anemia, cavities, and delayed puberty. Lead is
especially harmful to young children and developing
fetuses.
Effects of Lead on the Environment . Although lead is a
mineral that naturally occurs in soil, according to
co-sponsor, Center for Environmental Health's (CEH) report,
Clean Highways and Water: An End to Lead Wheel Balancing
Weights in California (August 2008), the levels of lead in
the environment are approximately 1,000 times more than
what they were a few hundred years ago. It is an aquatic
contaminant and harmful to aquatic animals including fish
and water fowl. In addition, it is also damaging to plans,
reducing growth and photosynthesis.
Lead Wheel Weights . Wheel weights are clipped to the rims
of automobiles to balance the ties and can loosen and fall
off. They are either washed into storm sewers and end up
in waterways or gathered during street cleaning and placed
in municipal landfills. These weights are susceptible to
atmospheric corrosion. According to CEH's report, lead
wheel weights are typically made of a mixture of 95 percent
lead and five percent antimony, another metal. Currently,
there are no regulatory controls governing the use of lead
wheel weights.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
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According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, annual
costs of at least $150,000 to DTSC for personnel to
investigate complaints and conduct laboratory testing.
(Hazardous Waste Control Account ([HWCA].) Potential
annual penalty revenue in the tens of thousands of dollars
to DTSC. (HWCA.)
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/3/09)
Center for Environmental health (co-source)
Clean Water Action (co-source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO
California State PTA
City of Los Angeles
Consumers Union
East Bay Municipal Utility district
Environmental Working Group
Green California
Hennessy Industries Inc.
Perfect Equipment, Inc.
Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles
Planning and Conservation League
Sierra Club
Worksafe
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro,
Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer,
Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Hayashi, Hernandez,
Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jones, Krekorian, Lieu, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, John A. Perez, V.
Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana,
Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Yamada, Bass
NOES: Adams, Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill,
Blakeslee, Conway, Cook, DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson,
Fletcher, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman,
Harkey, Jeffries, Knight, Miller, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, Silva, Smyth, Audra Strickland, Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Buchanan, Hall, Logue, Vacancy
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TSM:cm 9/3/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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