BILL ANALYSIS �
SJR 3
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: SJR 3
AUTHOR: Pavley
AMENDED: As Introduced
FISCAL: No HEARING DATE: May 2, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:
Rachel Machi Wagoner
SUBJECT : TOXIC SUBSTANCES: FEDERAL LAW
SUMMARY :
Existing federal law , pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA), states that adequate data should be developed with
respect to the effect of chemical substances and mixtures on
health and the environment and that the development of such
data should be the responsibility of those who manufacture and
those who process such chemical substances and mixtures.
Existing California law :
1) Requires the manufacturer of a cosmetic product to disclose
to the Department of Public Health a list of any ingredient
in their product that is a chemical which has been
identified to cause cancer or reproductive damage, pursuant
to the California Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005.
2) Requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)
to adopt regulations to: a) establish a process to identify
and prioritize chemicals or chemical ingredients in
products that may be considered a "chemical of concern;" b)
establish a process for evaluating chemicals of concern in
products, and their potential alternatives in order to
determine how best to limit exposure or to reduce the level
of hazard posed by a chemical of concern, as specified; and
c) establish a process that includes an evaluation of the
availability of potential alternatives and potential
hazards posed by alternatives, as well as an evaluation of
critical exposure pathways.
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3) Requires DTSC to establish a Toxics Information
Clearinghouse for the collection, maintenance, and
distribution of specific chemical hazard traits and
environmental and toxicological end-point data and requires
the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to
evaluate and specify the hazard traits and environmental
and toxicological end-points and any other relevant data
that are to be included in the clearinghouse.
This bill :
1) Urges the United States Congress to enact legislation
to reform the TSCA.
2) Makes various findings about the growing scientific
evidence linking exposure to toxic chemicals to
increasing rates of chronic and fatal diseases including
cancer, learning and development disabilities,
infertility and obesity.
3) Makes various findings about the failings of the
current regulatory structure governed by TSCA.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, this resolution
urges strong reform of TSCA and demands that states not be
preempted from going further than federal law if a state
chooses to do so. By updating TSCA, Congress will have the
capacity to create the foundation for a sound and
comprehensive chemicals policy that protects public health
and the environment, while restoring the luster and safety
to U.S. goods in the world market.
2) Chemical Use in the United States . There are currently
more than 80,000 chemicals approved under federal law for
use in the United States. Each day, a total of 42 billion
pounds of chemical substances are produced or imported in
the U.S. for commercial and industrial uses. An additional
1,000 new chemicals are introduced into commerce each year.
Approximately one new chemical comes to market every 2.6
seconds. Global chemical production is projected to double
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every 25 years. The average U.S. consumer comes into
contact with 100 chemicals per day.
3) Chemicals and Human Health Impacts . In 2009, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control conducted the Fourth National
Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals which
measured 212 chemicals in the blood and urine of a
representative population of California. This study and
other "body burden" studies quantify known chemicals in
human tissues. Many of these chemicals identified in body
burden studies have been correlated with decreased male and
female fertility, obesity, cancer and chronic diseases and,
in animal models, have been shown to have causative
effects.
Chemicals play a role in chronic disease. Among children,
chemical exposures contribute to 100% of lead poisoning
cases, 10-35% of asthmas cases, 2-10% of some cancers and
5-20% of neurobehavioral disorders. And the rate of disease
is increasing. Even without clear causative effects, there
are clear correlations of increasing disease that may have
environmental origins:
Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers
have increased by more than 20% since 1975 (Woodruff,
2008, USEPA).
Breast cancer increased by 40% between 1973 and 1998
(Howe, 2001, JNCI)
Asthma approximately doubled in prevalence between
1980 and 1995 and has stayed at the elevated rate
(Woodruff, 2004, Pediatrics; Moorman, 2009, CDC).
Difficulty in conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy
affected 40% more women in 2002 than in 1982. The
incidence of reported difficulty has almost doubled in
younger women, ages 18-25 (Chandra and Stephen, 1998,
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Family Planning Perspectives; Chandra, 2005, Vital and
Health Statistics; Brett, 2008, NCHS)
The birth defect resulting in undescended testes has
increased 200% between 1970 and 1993 (Paulozzi, 1999,
EHP).
Autism diagnoses have increased more than 10 times in
the last 15 years (NIMH, 2009).
1) President's Panel on Cancer . In 2010, the President's
Cancer Panel issued a dire warning about the role chemicals
play in the development of some cancers, and called on the
president to use the power of his office "to remove the
carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air
that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our
Nation's productivity, and devastate American lives." The
Panel characterized the federal law governing chemical
safety as the "most egregious example of ineffective
regulation of environmental contaminants."
2) The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) . The federal Toxic
Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) authorizes USEPA to
require reporting, recordkeeping and testing requirements,
and set restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or
mixtures. Certain substances are generally excluded from
TSCA, including, among others, food, drugs, cosmetics and
pesticides. TSCA addresses the production, importation,
use, and disposal of specific chemicals. Among its
provisions, TSCA requires USEPA to maintain the TSCA
inventory which currently contains more than 83,000
chemicals. As new chemicals are commercially manufactured
or imported, they are placed on the list.
TSCA requires the submission of health and safety studies
which are known or available to those who manufacture,
process, or distribute in commerce specified chemicals; and
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allows USEPA to gather information from manufacturers and
processors about production/import volumes, chemical uses
and methods of disposal, and the extent to which people and
the environment are exposed.
Data Gaps in TSCA - Within TSCA there are several areas
where there are vast gaps in data available about chemicals
currently in use in the United States. For example:
TSCA places the responsibility for
conducting health and environmental impact testing
on USEPA, not the producer of the chemical substance
or mixture. To date, USEPA has conducted testing
and published data on 200 chemicals on the inventory
of 83,000 chemicals.
TSCA does not provide for the review of
synergistic health and environmental impacts of the
potential interactions of the thousands of chemicals
and the potential multitude of exposures and
exposure pathways.
There were 62,000 chemicals in use in 1976
when TSCA was adopted into federal law. TSCA
provides for a grandfather clause for those 62,000
chemicals.
TSCA provides chemical producers protections
for confidential business information (CBI),
allowing producers to not publicly disclose
information about new chemicals entering commerce.
To date, the USEPA has reported that nearly
two-thirds of the new chemicals reported under TSCA
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over the last 33 years have claimed CBI protection.
1) U.S. Governmental Accountability Office Report . In 2009
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found USEPA's
implementation of TSCA to be "high-risk" because "EPA has
failed to develop sufficient chemical assessment
information on the toxicity of many chemicals that may be
found in the environment as well as tens of thousands of
chemicals used commercially in the United States" and
concluded by stating that Congress may wish to amend TSCA
and extend the EPA more explicit authority. At a
Congressional hearing in February 2010, the GAO director
again reiterated concerns, brought up new insufficiencies
in USEPA's use of the authority and direction of TSCA, and
called for legislative reform of TSCA. USEPA's own
Inspector General additionally declared on February 17,
2010, a need to make internal reforms to more strictly
enforce TSCA and set timelines for how long confidential
business information can be kept secret rather than
allowing for indefinite disclosure protections.
2) Current Actions under TSCA . On September 29, 2009, USEPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced enhancements to the
agency's current chemicals management program under TSCA in
an effort to identify chemicals that pose a concern to the
public, move quickly to evaluate them and determine what
actions need to be taken to address the risks they may
pose, and initiate appropriate action. EPA will produce
"chemical action plans," which will target the agency's
regulatory efforts on chemicals of concern.
At the direction of USEPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson,
and in parallel with an announcement of principles to
strengthen US chemical management laws, USEPA is initiating
a new approach to enhance USEPA's current chemicals
management program within the limits of existing
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authorities. This effort includes: new regulatory risk
management actions, development of chemical action plans
which will target USEPA's risk management efforts on
chemicals of concern, requiring information needed to
understand chemical risks and increasing transparency,
public access to information about chemicals.
3) California Chemical Policy . For more than a decade,
California has struggled to fill in the gaps in TSCA
chemical policy. The Legislature has considered over a
hundred bills proposing chemical bans and broader chemical
policies for California, heard testimony from "battling
scientists" and was interested in developing a broader,
more comprehensive approach to chemicals policy.
In 2003, the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and the
Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic
Materials commissioned a report from the University of
California to investigate the current legal and regulatory
structure for chemical substance and report on how a
California chemicals policy could address environmental and
health concerns about chemical toxicity, build a long-term
capacity to improve the design and use of chemicals, and
understand the implications of European policy on the
California chemical market.
In 2006, the U.C. Berkeley authors presented the
commissioned report, Green Chemistry in California: A
Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation
and made a connection between weaknesses in federal policy,
namely TSCA, and the health and environmental damage
happening in California. The report broadly summarized their
findings into what they called the "three gaps."
The 3 Gaps
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Data Gap: There is a lack of information on which
chemicals are safe, which are toxic, and what chemicals
are in products. The lack of access to chemical data
creates an unequal marketplace. California businesses
cannot choose and make safer products and respond to
consumer demand without ingredient disclosure and safety
testing.
Safety Gap: Government agencies do not have the legal
tools or information to prioritize chemical hazards.
Under TSCA only five chemicals out of 83,000 have been
banned since 1976. The California Legislature has
frequently addressed this problem by approving individual
chemical bans. Chemical bans come before the Legislature
because there are very few other mechanisms in place at
the federal or state level that can remove harmful
chemicals from the marketplace.
Technology Gap: There is an absence of regulatory
incentives, market motivation which stems from the data
gap, and educational emphasis on green chemistry
methodologies and technologies. In order to build a
substantial green chemistry infrastructure a coincident
investment and commitment must be made to strengthen
industrial and academic research and development.
In 2007, the California Environmental Protection Agency
launched California's Green Chemistry Initiative within the
Department of Toxics and Substances Control (DTSC). The
California Green Chemistry Initiative Final Report released
in December 2008 included the following six policy
recommendations for implementing this comprehensive program
in order to foster a new era in the design of a new consumer
products economy - inventing, manufacturing and using
toxic-free, sustainable products.
a) Expand Pollution Prevention and product
stewardship programs to more business sectors to focus
on prevention rather than simple source reduction or
waste controls.
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b) Develop Green Chemistry Workforce Education and
Training, Research and Development and Technology
Transfer through new and existing educational program
and public/private partnerships.
c) Create an Online Product Ingredient Network to
disclose chemical ingredients for products sold in
California, while protecting trade secrets.
d) Create an Online Toxics Clearinghouse, an online
database providing data on chemical, toxicity and
hazard traits to the market place and public.
e) Accelerate the Quest for Safer Products, creating
a systematic, science-based process to evaluate
chemicals of concern and identify safer alternatives to
ensure product safety.
f) Move Toward a Cradle-to-Cradle Economy to leverage
market forces to produce products that are
"benign-by-design" in part by establishing a California
Green Products Registry to develop green metrics and
tools for a range of consumer products and encourage
their use by businesses.
SB 509 (Simitian) Chapter 560, Statutes of 2008, and AB 1879
(Feuer) Chapter 559, Statutes of 2008 implement two key
pieces of a green chemistry initiative for California,
requiring regulations to be adopted to: a) assess chemicals
and products of concern and find safer alternatives and b)
develop a Toxics Information Clearinghouse to provide public
information about chemical hazards.
1) International Green Chemistry Efforts .
a. European Union - REACH In 2006 the European
Union adopted the Registration, Evaluation,
Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals
(REACH). REACH requires producers and importers to
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perform basic toxicity testing on their products
and to disclose the identities of chemicals in
their products. In addition, REACH prioritized
chemicals based on their production volume or the
risk level they pose to humans. These
prioritizations have created a warning list of 1100
chemicals that cannot be used in human-contact
products and banned the first seven chemicals under
this directive in June 2009, musk xylene,
4,4`-diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA), sort chained
chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs),
hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), and three
phthalates, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP),
benzylbutylphthalate (BBP), and dibutylphthalate
(DBP).
b. European Union - RoHS. The Restriction of
Hazardous Substances was adopted by the E.U. in
2003 and took effect in 2006. RoHS restricts the
use of six chemicals, Lead, Mercury, Cadmium,
Hexavalent chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls
(PBB), and Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) in
electronics and electrical equipment and sets their
maximum permitted concentrations to 0.1% or 1000
ppm (cadmium is limited to 0.01%). This regulation
has implications for the manufacture and design of
many electronic components which relied heavily on
the use of heavy metals as well as many commonplace
household items that are imported into or sold into
the European Union.
c. Canadian Chemicals of Concern The Canadian
Environmental Protection Act of 1999 governs many
aspects of chemical assessment and regulation in
Canada, including government screening and
categorization of chemicals. The Domestic
Substances List, an inventory of approximately
23,000 chemicals, was completed in 2006. The
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Chemicals Management Plan aims to gather additional
information on about 200 high-priority chemicals,
with industry required to provide information on
their use, manufacturing, and importation.
Screening is expected to be completed 2007-10, with
risk management assessments completed 2010-13.
d. International Cooperation on POPs The
Stockholm Convention, also known as the "POPs
Treaty," is a global treaty aimed at protecting
human health from persistent organic pollutants, or
POPs: toxic compounds that persist in the
environment and accumulate in human and animal fat
cells. The Convention calls for ratifying
governments to take steps to reduce or eliminate
the release of 12 specific POPS, and provides
technical and financial support for developing
countries for its implementation as well as
mechanisms for addition of new POPs. The 12
priority POPs are: aldrin, chlordane, DDT,
Dieldrin, dioxins, endrin, furans, heptachlor,
hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, and PCBs. In
2009 parties to the Stockholm Convention agreed to
add nine more POPs to its list of 12 substances
targeted for elimination. This is the first time
new chemicals were added to the list of POPs since
the Convention took effect in 2004. More than 50
governments have ratified the convention, including
the European Union. The US has signed, but not
ratified, the treaty.
2) Other State Legislation . Legislation has been introduced
in ten other states calling on the 112th U.S. Congress to
bring our federal chemicals policy into the 21st century:
Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts,
Montana, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.
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3) Federal Legislation . The "Safe Chemicals Act of 2011" was
introduced by Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Barbara
Boxer (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Charles Schumer
(D-NY). This bill would significantly reform TSCA by
requiring safety testing of all industrial chemicals, and
puts the burden on industry to prove that chemicals are
safe in order to get on or stay on the market.
SJR 3 encourages Congress to support and pass this or
similar legislation.
SOURCE : Senator Pavley
SUPPORT : Breast Cancer Fund
OPPOSITION : None on file