California on Monday launched the most comprehensive program of any state to regulate chemicals that have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption and other deadly effects on human health.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two broad laws that shift the state away from a scattershot approach in which bills targeting individual chemicals and products have passed or failed depending on the intensity of the lobbying and media attention.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, October 01, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
Chemical regulation: An article in Tuesday's California section about laws designed to change the state's approach to regulating chemicals in products sold in California included a subheadline that said the laws "target 80,000 toxics." The laws would require the state to examine the estimated 80,000 chemicals in circulation to determine which are harmful and how to regulate them.
The new measures are designed to encompass 80,000 chemicals now in circulation, rather than focus narrowly, as previous bills have, on specific substances in products such as baby bottles, toys, mattresses, computers or cosmetics. State regulators are to inventory the most dangerous, widespread chemicals first and control them at the manufacturing stage, before they are handled in workplaces, incorporated into products or allowed to escape into air and water.
The "green chemistry" initiative, Schwarzenegger said, will propel California to "the forefront of the nation and the world. . . . With these two bills, we will stop looking at toxics as an inevitable byproduct of industrial production."
The laws come as public alarm is on the rise over dangerous substances in consumer products. The federal Toxic Substances Control Act, passed three decades ago, has failed to control an explosion of hazardous materials, according to consumer and environmental groups. It exempted existing chemicals and requires the Environmental Protection Agency to prove a chemical is toxic before requesting data from manufacturers.
Automakers and electronics manufacturers lobbied heavily against California's initiative, saying that they are complying with European standards that are far stricter than U.S. federal law.
California's legislation would probably result "in higher costs with little or no benefit," Melanie Wiegner, a lobbyist for Ford Motor Co., wrote legislators. Automakers are concerned that the state could regulate brominated flame retardants in automobiles. The chemicals, which accumulate in human bodies, have been linked to neurodevelopmental problems.
The electronics industry opposed the laws on the grounds that they could result in different warning labels for California and European markets. "A patchwork of differing regulations . . . would unfairly disadvantage companies," said Joe Gregorich, a lobbyist for AeA, the electronics industry group. Computers, stereos and TV sets can contain substances that are harmful to the environment and that can cause neurological or reproductive problems in humans.
