On Jan. 29, California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released its revised, proposed Safer Consumer Product Regulations, or “green chemistry” regulations, based on the most recent comments. ACA has been reviewing the new draft regulations, and is preparing written comments for submittal to the agency by the Feb. 28 comment deadline. ACA last submitted comments on Oct. 11 to DTSC on the agency’s eighth draft of the Safer Consumer Products Regulations. The comments followed ACA staff, and California Paint Council testimony at a Sept. 10 hearing on California’s draft regulations which, given the limited time for testimony, focused on the extended producer responsibility section of the regulations. ACA’s written comments — the latest in several rounds — were extensive and addressed a myriad of concerns, ranging from the protection of confidential business information to the identification of chemicals of concern (COC). Under the revisions, DTSC is proposing to label an initial list of about 1,200 chemicals established under the regulations' “candidate chemicals” provisions for possible designation as a “chemical of concern.” A chemical must be present in a priority product to be a “chemical of concern,” according to the four-page summary of revisions. DTSC also has added chemicals classified by the European Unit as Category 1 respiratory sensitizers to the initial list of “candidate chemicals,” as well as expanded the list of chemicals to include pollutants in California impaired waters identified as Clean Water Act Section 303(d) chemicals, such as nickel, silver, zinc, and copper. The agency also added a provision exempting products regulated by other laws “that provide equivalent or greater protections with respect to the same public health and environmental adverse impacts and exposure pathways” addressed by the proposed regulations. Other revisions to the proposed regulations focus on the prescribed process for conducting alternative analyses to identify potential chemical hazards in reformulated products, including the economic impacts of a proposed alternative. The Safer Consumer Products Regulations are designed to spur manufacturers to identify safe substitutes for chemicals of concern found in consumer products. These drafted regulations are the ninth iteration issued in the past four years. California’s Green Chemistry Initiative seeks to reduce the amount of “toxics” in consumer products, under a regulatory program enacted by law in 2008. Under California’s A.B. 1879, the regulations must provide a science-based approach for building a list of chemicals that pose the greatest risks, for identifying products that contain the chemicals, and for analyzing safer alternatives. The regulations would establish a list of chemicals of concern expected to number approximately 1,200; identify an initial list of up to five “Priority Products” that contain one or more chemicals of concern; require manufacturers that produce or sell the priority products in California to identify potential alternatives, and conduct an alternatives assessment using a process and criteria described in the proposal; and require manufacturers to produce a report detailing their findings and proposed next steps to DTSC. The department would then review that analysis, and determine and publish for comment its proposed regulatory response. These could be actions such as chemical use restrictions, sales prohibitions, or engineering or administrative controls. After receiving public comment on the proposed regulatory response, the department would notify the manufacturer or manufacturers of the regulatory response or responses, and the implementation dates by which manufacturers would have to comply with those decisions. If the department determines that a safer, “functionally acceptable and technologically and economically feasible” alternative to the chemical of concern is available, that alternative must be used within one year. Manufacturers, upon failing to comply, could be prohibited from selling priority products with chemicals of concern in question. Read more from Source:
http://paint.org/news/industry-news/item/1108-california-dtsc-releases-revised-draft-green-chemistry-regulations-aca-preparing-comments.html
http://paint.org/news/industry-news/item/1108-california-dtsc-releases-revised-draft-green-chemistry-regulations-aca-preparing-comments.html
