And what happens until 2016? Not much. However, if a California agency grants a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the steelworkers union (representing DuPont workers), PFOA will soon also become subject to Proposition 65. And unless DuPont can then prove that the chemical's risks to humans are insignificant, warnings will be required.
The clear lesson is that states often do more to protect consumers than do federal regulators. So why is Congress even considering passing a bill denying California and other states the right to protect citizens? Follow the money.
All told, food companies have forked over $5.2 million to the bill's 226 co-sponsors. The Californian members of Congress co-sponsoring the bill in the House received about $670,000 from food interests for this election cycle alone, and more than $1 million for 2004, according to public filings with the Federal Elections Commission. Some of the top money-getters are Reps. Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), $250,208); Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), $558,152); and Dennis Cardoza (D-Atwater) $239,152).
Some people argue that the avalanche of warnings numb the public to real environmental hazards. Perhaps. But the "right to know" provisions in Proposition 65 and other laws give consumers real choices. If one brand of lettuce in the supermarket says it contains perchlorate, rocket fuel and developmental toxins and another does not, the market will work. And exposure to that chemical will be reduced, not just at the dinner table but also "upstream," for chemical workers in the plants and farm workers in the fields.
This is not the first attempt to preempt Proposition 65 with a federal law. It has survived for 20 years principally because of the leadership of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, present and past attorneys general and the state's governors -- of both parties. But the voice of one governor is conspicuously missing.
In February, Waxman, together with Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), wrote to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to oppose the "National Uniformity" bill. Thus far, the response from the governor's office has been silence. As the debate over food safety moves to the U.S. Senate, it's time for the governor to make sure this threat to California's sovereignty is terminated.
