U.S.: Tsunami Warning: California's "Regulations for Safer Products" Are on the Way
By Edward P. Sangster (San Francisco)
A tsunami is a wave that washes over lands far distant from the geological event that caused it. So it will be with California's "Regulations for Safer Products," which will shortly be released for public comment. These regulations will have far reaching impacts in markets throughout the United States and beyond.
The Green Chemistry Initiative
The Regulations for Safer Products will comprise one part of California's Green Chemistry Initiative. The Green Chemistry Initiative surfaced in April 2007 as a directive from the Secretary of California’s Environmental Protection Agency to its subsidiary agencies and boards. The Green Chemistry Initiative was described at the time as a "preemptive strategy to stop toxic substances before they contaminate the environment and our bodies." The Secretary directed agencies to place new emphasis on enforcing existing statutes and regulations, and to develop new regulations focused on eliminating exposures, rather than regulating wastes.
The official motto for the Green Chemistry Initiative succinctly, if quixotically, states its ultimate goal: "cradle to cradle" regulation. The motto signifies the intention of California regulators to compel the design of chemical products and processes that will reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances and the generation of hazardous wastes.
In 2008, the California Legislature empowered the Green Chemistry Initiative by enacting Assembly Bill ("AB") 1879. AB 1879 requires California's Department of Toxic Substances Control ("DTSC") to enact regulations by January 1, 2011 to identify Chemicals of Concern in consumer products, and then to impose life cycle regulation on consumer products containing such chemicals...
