A two-bill package to give state regulators broad authority over potentially dangerous chemicals in consumer products was signed today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger touted the legislation as the "most comprehensive Green Chemistry program ever established."
Assembly Bill 1879 and Senate Bill 509 were negotiated in the final days of the legislative session last month amid fighting over separate bills targeting chemicals in fast food containers, microwave popcorn bags and some plastic baby bottles.
The approach approved by Schwarzenegger today will require the state to assume more responsibility for identifying, analyzing and regulating chemicals in consumer products.
The goal is to create a science-based process for evaluating potentially harmful chemicals in consumer products rather than making such issues a political football, sparking one-chemical-at-a-time legislation.
Chemical companies and manufacturers have complained that legislators lack the scientific knowledge to decide what is potentially dangerous, and are too often swayed by emotion rather than science.
AB 1879 would give the Department of Toxic Substances Control until January 2011 to establish a science-based process to identify and evaluate problem chemicals in their manufacture, use and ultimate disposal.
AB 1879 also would give the department authority to regulate the chemicals, including banning their use in California. A "Green Ribbon" panel of scientists would advise the department.
The bill was proposed by Democratic Assemblymen Mike Feuer of Los Angeles and Jared Huffman of San Rafael.
SB 509, by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, would create a state-run Web site where consumers could search for information on chemical hazards.
The two-bill package received bipartisan support in the Legislature.
"With these two bills, we will stop looking at toxics as an inevitable byproduct of industrial production," Schwarzenegger said. "Instead, they will be something that can be removed from every product in the design stage - protecting people's health and our environment."
State environmental regulators traditionally have focused mostly on problems such as air pollution and hazardous waste disposal, while chemical regulation has been left to the federal government.
Call The Bee's Jim Sanders, (916) 326-5538.
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