Green chemistry is now a hot topic in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two green chemistry bills in Sacramento on September 29 in an effort to create greener products through the transformation of the state’s regulation of chemicals.
Most immediately relevant to GoodGuide users is SB 509, which Senator Joe Simitian sponsored. Starting in 2009, the California Department for Toxic Substances Control will build an online Toxics Clearinghouse Database with detailed information on chemical hazards to human health and ecosystems. The agency will pool data from existing chemical databases across the world, not just the US. (GoodGuide already uses many of these databases to help generate our health ratings.) This should vastly increase the amount of information that consumers can use to protect themselves.
Unfortunately, the new law does not impose a basic requirement on manufacturers to disclose all ingredients in consumer products, as opposed to reporting only hazardous active ingredients or using vague terms such as “surfactant” or “fragrance”. Nor does the law require the toxics database to address consumer products specifically.
The original bill, in fact, did have such a requirement. Companies were to reveal all substances constituting over 0.1% of a consumer product’s composition on their product labels or websites by March 2009, an effort to help consumers find healthier products. But, in August, Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature succumbed to heavy industry lobbying and abandoned this badly needed reform.
Read more to learn what this lack of reporting means for you.
