BILL ANALYSIS
SB 22
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Date of Hearing: June 29, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Pedro Nava, Chair
SB 22 (Simitian) - As Introduced: December 1, 2008
SENATE VOTE : 22-14
SUBJECT : California Toxics Information Clearinghouse.
SUMMARY : Authorizes the Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment (OEHHA) to expedite review and identification of
hazard traits of chemical ingredients in consumer products.
Specifically, this bill authorizes OEHHA to recommend procedures
for expediting the review and identification of hazard traits
for the California Toxics Information Clearinghouse, including
pending and proposed actions by other states, the federal
government, and other nations to limit hazardous materials in
products.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires, under the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act (15
U.S.C, Sections 2601 to 2692), the manufacturer of a chemical
to submit specified data to the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), including the submission of data
prior to its use in commerce.
2)Requires a California business to provide public notice about
the use of a chemical known to the state as causing cancer or
reproductive toxicity, pursuant to the Toxics Enforcement and
Safe Drinking Water Act (Proposition 65).
3)Requires OEHHA to evaluate and specify the hazard traits,
toxicological endpoints and other relevant data to be included
in California's Toxics Information Clearinghouse, which will
be constructed by the Cal/EPA's Department of Toxic Substances
Control (SB 509 (Simitian) Chapter 560, Statutes of 2008).
FISCAL EFFECT : Not known.
COMMENTS :
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, the purpose of SB
SB 22
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22 is to further clarify and advance the development of the
Toxic Information Clearinghouse by providing authority to
OEHHA to use already developed standards and protocols to
identify hazard traits of chemicals in consumer products.
2)Green Chemistry and the Toxics Information Clearinghouse . In
2008, the Governor signed AB 1879 and SB 509 into law, which
enacted two green chemistry policy recommendations outlined in
DTSC's Green Chemistry report. AB 1879 (Feuer and Huffman)
Chapter 559, Statutes of 2008, requires DTSC to adopt
regulations by January 1, 2011 to identify and prioritize
chemicals of concern, to evaluate alternatives, and to specify
regulatory responses where chemicals of concern are found in
consumer products. SB 509 requires DTSC to establish an
online, public Toxics Information Clearinghouse that includes
science-based information on the toxicity and hazard traits of
chemicals as identified by OEHHA.
AB 1879 and SB 509 established a foundation for the
development of a comprehensive green chemistry policy in the
state. Prior to the enactment of these two bills, California
had an extremely limited chemical policy program in which many
state entities held limited regulatory authority over consumer
products that contained chemicals of concern.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None received.
Opposition
None received.
Analysis Prepared by : Bob Fredenburg / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965