BILL NUMBER: AB 127	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 1, 2013
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 21, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Skinner
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Ammiano, Rendon, Stone, and Williams)

                        JANUARY 14, 2013

   An act to add Section 18934.6 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to fire safety.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 127, as amended, Skinner. Fire safety: fire retardants:
building insulation.
   Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission to adopt regulations pertaining to urea
formaldehyde foam insulation materials that are reasonably necessary
to protect the public health and safety. Existing law provides that
these regulations may include prohibition of the manufacture, sale,
or installation of this insulation. Existing law also authorizes the
Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and
Thermal Insulation to establish by regulation insulation material
standards governing the quality of all insulation material sold or
installed in the state.
   The California Building Standards Law requires all state agencies
that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the
building standard to the California Building Standards Commission
for approval or adoption. Existing law requires the commission to
receive proposed building standards from state agencies for
consideration in an 18-month code adoption cycle. Existing law
requires the commission to adopt, approve, codify, update, and
publish green building standards applicable to a particular
occupancy, if no state agency has the authority or expertise to
propose green building standards for those occupancies.
   This bill would state that the Legislature finds and declares that
it is in the best interest of the state to  eliminate
  reduce the use of flame retardant chemicals from
building insulation, while preserving building fire safety and
encouraging healthy building practices. The bill would require the
commission to adopt, approve, codify, and publish, during its next
code adoption cycle,  updated flammability  standards that
accomplish certain things, including maintaining overall building
fire safety while giving full consideration to the long-term human
and ecological health impacts associated with chemical flame
retardants.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) To improve energy efficiency and to reduce global climate
change, the use of plastic insulation materials, such as polystyrene,
polyisocyanurate, and polyurethane, is increasing in buildings and
especially in green buildings.
   (b) In the United States, flammability requirements for plastic
foam insulations and other building materials are incorporated into
building codes and fire regulations for building materials. To meet
these requirements, plastic insulation materials have flame-retardant
chemicals added to them, usually as halogenated organic compounds
with chlorine or bromine bonded to carbon.
   (c) Studies have shown that these halogenated organic compounds
 are   may be  associated with neurological
and developmental toxicity and endocrine disruption, and are
possible carcinogens.
   (d) Flame retardants, whose primary use is in building insulation,
are found at increasing levels in household dust, human bodily
fluids, and the environment.
   (e) Code provisions regulating plastic foam insulations in
buildings were first introduced in the early 1960s. Those code
provisions do not specify that chemicals be added to foam plastic
insulation, but in practice organohalogen flame-retardant compounds
are  commonly  added to meet test requirements.
   (f) Despite these requirements, in the 1970s, serious fires
occurred from exposed foam plastic insulation. To address this issue,
the 1976 Uniform Building Code required plastic foam insulation to
be protected by a thermal barrier, usually as, or in the form of,
0.5-inch-thick gypsum wallboard.
   (g) Although, in most circumstances, the thermal barrier
regulations have been deemed to be sufficient for fire safety,
chemical flame retardants are still also required. Virtually all
foam-plastic insulation materials in the United States today,
including extruded and expanded polystyrene, polyisocyanurate, and
spray polyurethane foam, are treated with halogenated flame
retardants.
   (h) Many flame retardants are known to pose serious health and
environmental hazards and are  actively being banned
or eliminated from use in many parts of the world.
   (i) Comprehensive investigations by fire-safety experts cast into
doubt the contention that the addition of flame retardants, at the
concentrations typically used in foam insulation,  measurably
 improves fire safety.
   (j) The presence of flame retardants does not prevent foam plastic
from burning and upon combustion can significantly increase
hazardous products like smoke, soot, carbon monoxide, and potentially
carcinogenic dioxins.
   (k) The Steiner Tunnel Test (ASTM E-84), the most common test
procedure used to determine flammability, flame spread, and smoke
developed, produces misleading results when applied to foam plastic
insulation.
   (l) Flame retardants add to the cost of foam insulation materials
while not appreciably enhancing fire safety. Thermal barriers, such
as drywall, provide  far greater   adequate
 protection against fire and fire-spread than flame retardants.
   (m) The International Code Council is considering adopting
exemptions to  the Steiner Tunnel  flame spread and smoke
developed requirements for foam plastics in the International
Residential Code where adequate thermal barriers, such as
0.5-inch-thick gypsum wallboard or one-inch thick masonry or
concrete, are present.
  SEC. 2.  Section 18934.6 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   18934.6.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the
best interest of the state to  eliminate  
reduce the use of flame retardant  chemicals  from
  in  building insulation, while preserving
building fire safety and encouraging healthy building practices.
   (b) The commission shall adopt, approve, codify, and publish,
during its next code adoption cycle,  updated flammability 
standards that accomplish both of the following:
   (1) Maintain overall building fire safety while giving full
consideration to the long-term human and ecological health impacts
associated with chemical flame retardants.
   (2) Ensure that there is adequate protection from fires that
travel between walls and into confined areas, including crawl spaces
and attics, for occupants of the building and any firefighters who
may be in the building during a fire.