American Coatings Association

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Jan. 12 signed a memorandum of understanding charting a strategy for sharing information and processes to advance each body's green chemistry program for consumer products. 

Remarking on the agreement, Jim Jones, EPA's acting assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention said: “This partnership will build and harmonize common tools and practices used to conduct alternative assessments to promote safer products.’’

The California Green Chemistry Initiative seeks to reduce the amount of “toxics” in consumer products, under a regulatory program, enacted by law in 2008. The Green Chemistry Initiative is being designed by DTSC, in conjunction with the Green Ribbon Science Panel (mostly composed of academic experts). 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.

Last month, ACA submitted comments to California’s DTSC on the latest draft (Oct. 31, 2011) of the department’s Safer Consumer Product Alternatives Regulations to implement the state’s Green Chemistry initiative. ACA's comments focused on: 1) prioritizing the very large list of Chemicals of Concern; 2) raising the very low De Minimis level; 3) extending the time for completion of an Alternatives Assessment Report; and 4) obtaining an exemption for PaintCare^® from End-of-Life Management requirements.

Under the current proposal, the scope of the program is broader and the timeframes for identifying chemicals of concern and for building a priority list of products is shortened from previous iterations.

For example, the regulations would immediately establish a list of chemicals of concern composed of more than 3,000 substances based on the work already completed by several authoritative bodies, compared with the list of 800 chemicals targeted under the prior proposal.

Also, the current proposal within six months would recommend an initial list of priority products. Initially the list would be limited to two to five types of products. The earlier regulatory proposal sought to limit the product categories during the first five years. Both lists will be reviewed at least once every three years under the latest proposal.

DTSC is also proposing expanding the primary responsibility for compliance beyond manufacturers to include product designers and U.S. importers. Only products containing less than 0.01 percent of a hazardous chemical would be exempted from the regulations, rather than the one-tenth of 1 percent as previously proposed.

The California Safer Consumer Product Alternatives Regulations are intended to address chemical exposure during consumer use and the environmental impacts of consumer products during useful life and after disposal. ACA comments echoed testimony it had provided at a Dec. 5 DTSC workshop on the draft regulations and focused on the lack of prioritization of the very large Chemicals of Concern List, the extremely low De Minimis levels included in the draft, and the unreasonably short timelines for completion of preliminary and final Alternatives Assessment Reports.

ACA is an active member of the Green Chemistry Alliance, a coalition of industry trade groups and manufacturers that advocate the use of a risk-based, scientific approach for advancing green chemistry principles that will enhance the public’s trust in government agencies to protect people and the environment. 

The draft regulations are available at http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/SCPRegulations.cfm.

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