State of California Issues another Draft of Proposed Green Chemistry Regulations

March 22, 2013 - PRLog -- California’s Safer Consumer Products Act (“California Green Chemistry Initiative”) was signed into law in 2008 and the implementation rules have been under development for several years.  The purpose of the law is to accelerate the quest for safer products by having toxic chemicals removed from or reduced significantly in consumer products, instead of managing these chemicals at the end of the product’s lifecycle as hazardous waste.(1)  

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) characterized the proposed regulation as a "preemptive strategy that reduces the use of toxic substances in the design of products and industrial processes with the aim of creating safer and sustainable products that do not threaten human health or persist in the environment.”(2)

On January 29, DTSC released its ninth draft version of the proposed regulation subject to a 30-day comment period that ran through February 28, 2013.(3,4)  The notable changes since the last revision in July of 2012 are:

o      Establishes an immediate list of Candidate Chemicals, with approx. 1,200 chemicals already identified from which the Chemicals of Concern (COC) (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/assessingrisk/emergingcontaminants.cfm) will be chosen, and specifies a process for DTSC to identify additional chemicals as Candidate Chemicals (CCs).  

o     The initial list of Priority Products, with no more than five products, on the basis of one or more Candidate Chemicals in the product, will be made available for public review and comment no later than 180 days after the effective date of the regulations.

o       Provides for a separate rulemaking process for further development of the "Priority Products" list. The list will be developed and updated once every three years through the Administrative Procedure Act’s rulemaking process via a DTSC Priority Product Work Plan.

o    The responsibility for compliance with the regulations flows downstream, from manufacturer, importer/distributor, assembler, to retailer, if the entity upstream fails to comply. However, the principal duty to comply with the requirements of the regulations lies with the manufacturer. A retailer or assembler is required to comply with the regulations only if the manufacturer and importers (if any) fail to comply, and only after this information is posted on the Failure to Comply List on DTSC’s website.  

o    The definition of manufacturer has been changed to “any person who manufactures a product that is subject to the requirements of this chapter, or any person that controls the manufacturing process for, or has the capacity to specify the use of chemicals in, such a product”.  Manufacture does not mean “assemble”, but assemblers of products who use a component on the Priority Product list will need to comply with the regulation.

o    Exempted products are expanded to include those consumer products that DTSC determines are regulated by one or more federal and/or California State regulatory program(s), and/or applicable treaties or international agreements with the force of domestic law.

o    A very significant change is the elimination of all provisions requiring that an Alternatives Assessment (AA) be conducted by a "certified assessor."  To assure the quality of the AA, the responsible entity needs to consider all information and public comments made available on DTSC's website and summarize the consideration of such information and comments in its final AA Report.

o    The Alternatives Analysis Threshold (AAT) will now be defined as the Practical Quantitation Limit (PQL), and a product will be exempted only if the COC is present as a contaminant below the PQL.

o    Nondisclosure provisions now recognize that a responsible entity may have federal law disclosure prohibitions that prevent it from submitting required information, and proprietary chemicals being considered as alternates to the COC may be masked until a patent application is granted or denied.

DTSC has made available a summary of the changes in the core elements of the Proposed Regulation on its web site.(5)

Neither the COC list nor the list of Priority Products has yet been created, but SGS will continue to monitor further developments and issue updates as these details are finalized.  

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Resources:

(1)  California Green Chemistry Initiative – FAQ (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/upload/FAQs_greenchem.pdf)

(2)  DTSC Public Notice (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/LawsRegsPolicies/Regs/upload/SCP-Public-Notice-7-23-2012.pdf)

(3)  Text Of Proposed Regulations – Post-Hearing Changes (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/LawsRegsPolicies/Regs/upload/SCP-Revised-Text-NU.pdf)

(4)  DTSC 30-Day Public Notice (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/LawsRegsPolicies/Regs/upload/SCP-30-Day-Regs-Text.pdf)

(5)  DTSC Summary of Changes (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/LawsRegsPolicies/Regs/upload/SCP-Summary-of-Changes.pdf)

Please do not hesitate to contact the SGS experts for further information.

Contact details:

SGS Consumer Testing Services
Paul Milne, Ph.D.
Technical Manager, Restricted Substances Testing Services
SGS – North America
291 Fairfield Avenue
Fairfield, NJ 07004  

t: +1 973-461-1512
Email: cts.media@sgs.com
Website: http://www.sgs.com/en/Consumer-Goods-Retail/Electrical-and-Electronics.aspx  

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