CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 100

Introduced by Senator Lara

February 12, 2018

Relative to the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SCR 100, as introduced, Lara. Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986: list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity: processed meat.
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 65 at the November 4, 1986, statewide general election (Proposition 65), prohibits a person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from knowingly discharging or releasing such a chemical into water, or into or onto land and passing into any source of drinking water, except as specified. Proposition 65 requires the Governor to cause to be published a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity within the meaning of the act, and to cause the list to be revised and republished in light of additional knowledge at least once per year. Proposition 65 requires that the list include, at a minimum, the substances identified in specified law, including substances listed as human or animal carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
This measure would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to fulfill its nondiscretionary duty to add “processed meat (for consumption)” to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.
Fiscal Committee: NO  
WHEREAS, The Legislature affirms that in passing the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, otherwise known as Proposition 65, the people of California declared their right to be informed about exposure to chemicals or substances that cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm; and
WHEREAS, Chemicals are added to or removed from the official list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity based on California’s analysis of current scientific information, and the list is required by Proposition 65 to include, at a minimum, substances identified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of, and in subdivision (d) of, Section 6382 of the Labor Code, which includes the substances listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as human or animal carcinogens; and
WHEREAS, The IARC formally listed “processed meat (consumption of)” on its list of “Agents Classified by the IARC Monographs” as “carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)”; and
WHEREAS, “Processed meat” means meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation, and “meat” includes, but is not limited to, mammalian muscle tissue, poultry, offal, and meat by products, such as blood; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment shall fulfill its nondiscretionary duty pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 25249.8 of the Health and Safety Code and paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 25904 of Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations, or any successor regulation, to add “processed meat (for consumption)” to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.