September 15, 2014
On September 12, 2014, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released a draft three-year workplan for the Safer Consumer Products initiative. The workplan (1) outlines the procedures that DTSC will use to identify future priority products that will be subject to regulation and (2) identifies product categories that DTSC will consider for selecting future priority products. As expected, DTSC is proposing to use a broad set of criteria for selecting future priority products, including inherent hazard, evidence of exposure in biomonitoring studies, and potential to affect population groups of particular concern (e.g., children, workers). The range is so broad in order to give DTSC the ability to identify essentially any chemical-product combination as a concern.
Seven product categories are identified in the draft workplan:
(1) beauty, personal care, and hygiene products,
(2) certain building products (adhesives, sealants, and flooring),
(3) cleaning products,
(4) clothing products,
(5) fishing and angling equipment,
(6) consumable elements of office equipment (e.g., inks, toners), and
(7) household and office furnishings treated with flame retardants and stain repellants.
DTSC indicates that they expect to nominate approximately 5 to 10 priority products per year starting in 2015.
DTSC will be hosting two public meetings to receive comments on the workplan, the first in Sacramento on September 25th and the second in Cypress (Los Angeles area) on September 29th. At this point, it is not clear if the meetings will be webcast.
A copy of the 21-page workplan can be obtained here.