Bill Text: CA SJR3 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Enrolled

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Toxic substances: federal law.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-0)

Status: (Passed) 2011-07-19 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 62, Statutes of 2011. [SJR3 Detail]

Download: California-2011-SJR3-Enrolled.html

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BILL NUMBER: SJR 3	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  JULY 14, 2011
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  JULY 5, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 3, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Pavley
   (Coauthors: Senators Alquist, Corbett, De León, Evans, Kehoe,
Leno, Simitian, and Yee)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Ammiano, Beall, Blumenfield, Butler,
Feuer, Huffman, Monning, Skinner, and Williams)

                        MARCH 15, 2011

   Relative to toxic substances control.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SJR 3, Pavley. Toxic substances: federal law.
   This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the
United States to enact federal legislation to modernize the federal
Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 by strengthening chemical
management through specified policy reforms.



   WHEREAS, Children and pregnant women are uniquely vulnerable to
the health threats of toxic chemicals, and early life chemical
exposures have been linked to chronic disease later in life; and
   WHEREAS, A growing body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence links
exposure to toxic chemicals to many diseases and health conditions
that are rising in incidence, including childhood cancers, prostate
cancer, breast cancer, learning and developmental disabilities,
infertility, and obesity; and
   WHEREAS, The President's Cancer Panel report released in May 2010
states "the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been
grossly underestimated," and the panel advised the President of the
United States "to use the power of your 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"; and
   WHEREAS, Workers in a range of industries are exposed to toxic
chemicals which pose threats to their health, increasing worker
absenteeism, workers' compensation claims, and health care costs that
burden the economy; and
   WHEREAS, A recent national poll found that 78 percent of American
voters were seriously concerned about the threat to children's health
from exposure to toxic chemicals in day-to-day life; and
   WHEREAS, States bear an undue burden from toxic chemicals,
including health care costs and environmental damages, disadvantaging
businesses that lack information on chemicals in their supply chain,
and increasing demands for state regulation; and
   WHEREAS, The federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA;
15 U.S.C. Sec. 2601 et seq.), the primary governing federal statute,
was intended to authorize the federal Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to protect public health and the environment from toxic
chemicals; and
   WHEREAS, When TSCA was passed, about 62,000 chemicals in commerce
were "grandfathered in" without any required testing for health and
safety hazards or any restrictions on usage; and
   WHEREAS, In the 35 years since the enactment of TSCA, the EPA has
required chemical companies to test only about 200 of those chemicals
for health hazards and has issued partial restrictions on only five
chemicals; and
   WHEREAS, TSCA has been widely recognized as ineffective and
obsolete due to legal and procedural hurdles that prevent the EPA
from taking quick and effective regulatory action to protect the
public against well-known chemical threats; and
   WHEREAS, A strong uniform federal standard would be beneficial to
both consumers and businesses; and
   WHEREAS, In January 2009, the United States General Accounting
Office (GAO) added the EPA's regulatory program for assessing and
controlling toxic chemicals to its list of "high risk" government
programs that are not working as intended, finding that the EPA has
been unable to complete assessments of chemicals of the highest
concern. The EPA requires additional authority to obtain health and
safety information from the chemical industry and to shift more of
the burden to chemical companies to demonstrate the safety of their
products. TSCA does not provide sufficient chemical safety data for
public use by consumers, businesses, and workers and fails to create
incentives to develop safer alternatives; and
   WHEREAS, The National Conference of State Legislatures unanimously
adopted a resolution in July 2009 that articulated principles for
the reform of TSCA and called on Congress to act to update the law;
and
   WHEREAS, In August 2010, the Environmental Council of the States
(ECOS), the national association of state environmental agency
directors, unanimously adopted a resolution entitled "Reforming the
Toxic Substances Control Act," which endorsed specific policy
reforms; and
   WHEREAS, Ten states have come together to launch the Interstate
Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) to coordinate state chemical
information management programs, and a coalition of 13 states issued
guiding principles for TSCA reform; and
   WHEREAS, Seventy-one state laws on chemical safety have been
enacted and signed into law in 18 states with broad bipartisan
support over the last eight years; and
   WHEREAS, California's policy leadership on chemical management,
although outstanding, cannot substitute for congressional leadership
to reform TSCA, a reform which all parties agree is urgently needed;
and
   WHEREAS, TSCA is the only major federal environmental statute that
has never been updated or reauthorized; and
   WHEREAS, Legislation to substantially reform TSCA was introduced
during the 109th Congress in 2005, the 110th Congress in 2008, and
again in the 111th Congress in 2010; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the California State Legislature urges the
President and the 112th Congress of the United States to enact
federal legislation to modernize the federal Toxic Substances Control
Act of 1976 by strengthening chemical management through policy
reforms that would do all of the following:
   (a) Require producers and importers to perform comprehensive
toxicity testing on their products and to fully disclose the results
of their testing.
   (b) Require producers and importers to disclose the identities of
chemicals in their products.
   (c) Require immediate action to reduce or eliminate the worst
chemicals, including persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic
chemicals, which are known as PBTs, and other priority toxic
chemicals, to which there is already widespread exposure.
   (d) Preserve the authority of state and tribal governments to
operate chemical management programs that are more protective than
the programs established by the federal government.
   (e) Establish health safety standards for chemicals that rely on
the best available science to protect the most vulnerable, including
children and the developing fetus.
    (f)  Support those chemical manufacturers that are striving to
establish that all existing and new chemicals are not harmful to
human health, and to provide essential health and safety information
on chemicals to inform the market, consumers, and the public.
    (g) Reward innovation by fast-tracking the approval of new,
demonstrably safer chemicals, and invest in green chemistry research
and workforce development to boost American business and spur jobs
making safer alternatives.
    (h) Promote environmental justice by developing action plans to
reduce disproportionate exposure to toxic chemicals in "hot spot"
communities; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States,
to the President pro Tempore of the United States Senate, to the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United States,
and to the author for appropriate distribution.