California Leads the Way
    California has taken a significant step in protecting its citizens and the environment from hundreds of toxic substances commonly found in consumer products.Â
    Two new state laws, passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, launches a new approach to dealing with toxics in the environment. Instead of the usual, relatively ineffective chemical-by-chemical approach, the legislation authorizes the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control to identify and prioritize a list of chemicals of concern and to ban them from products sold in California.
    With the newly enacted laws, “we will stop looking at toxics as an inevitable byproduct of industrial production,” says Schwarzenegger. “Instead, they will be something that can be removed from every product in the design stage–protecting people’s health and our environment,” he explains.Â
    Schwarzenegger calls his state’s new approach to toxics “the most comprehensive green chemistry program ever established” and promises that the legislation “will spur a new era of research and innovation that will drive economic growth and competition in the green chemistry sector.”
    The legislation is a response to growing concern by scientists and public health advocates about unsafe and untested chemicals in a wide range of consumer products. A report by the California Policy Research Center shows that every day the United States produces or imports 42 billion pounds of chemicals that may cause problems for humans and the environment.
    In addition to enabling the state to ban products that contain harmful chemicals, the legislation also outlines the creation of a Toxics Information Clearinghouse. This online resource will make it easy for the public to learn about the toxicity of thousands of chemicals used in the state every day.
    I look forward to the day when the other 49 states will have similar laws! Thanks, California, for paving the way!–April Moore
October 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
This is the type of preventive, proactive legislation that we have needed for a long time. Congratulations CA!
No doubt that the law will be challenged under various trade agreements such as NAFTA and WTO, since those agreements consider such laws to be non-tariff measures in restraint of trade. They make it mandatory that states rescind duly adopted laws that, regardless of their scientific basis, can be deemed by the NAFTA court (mostly consisting of business interest appointees) to leave a firm in a signatory country at a competitive disadvantage.
See for instance Moyers’ show “Trading Democracy”:
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_tdfull.html
to get an idea of how this all works.
If Obama is elected, and there is a Democratic majority in both houses, perhaps there will be a chance that the US can begin to renegotiate such agreements to return us to soveriegnty of the people over that of corporations. If so, the new California law and others will withstand these challenges.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:33 am
That’s great news and let’s hope the legislation and its enforcement achieve their goals.
The California example hopefully will lead to other nations adopting similar measures and in time
the ban would not only be on imports and sales within California but also on
sales and exports to other states or nations
This looks like a great and significant first step
October 15th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Interesting comments. While I can easily imagine opposition from the corporate sector, I did read that the legislation has the support of some industry groups.
I had not thought about about opposition based on trade agreements, or maybe opposition that uses trade agreements as an excuse. But I shouldn’t be surprised if such opposition surfaces, or maybe even already has.