California takes aim at chemicals in plastics

California is considering pioneering and controversial legislation aimed at protecting citizens from potentially harmful chemicals in a wide array of consumer products - everything from deodorant to plastic toys.

Several bills now percolating through the state legislature - two of which passed the Senate this week - propose ways for manufacturers to study and identify trace elements in products that could cause health problems. They want to hold the companies accountable if they don't alert consumers.

Because of California's record as a trendsetter in reforms from taxation to affirmative action, the debate over the pending legislation is fierce. Industry officials worry the new measures could mandate - as has already been done in Europe - significant and expensive changes by some of the largest global manufacturers of beauty products. It would apply to items from lipstick to rubber ducks to baby pacifiers.

Indeed, some companies and other opponents wonder whether the new precautionary approaches will be based on proper science. They also see it adding unnecessary costs to their products, forcing some smaller companies out of business..

"There is wide certainty in the public-health community and the environmental community that US federal laws are too vague or lax and thinks new state laws like these are the wave of the future," says Charles Warren, a former regional administrator for the US EPA, now cochair of environmental practices group for Bryan Cave LLP. At the same time, he says, "there is a tremendous hue and cry from the chemical industry saying, 'Wait a minute, you are going to be taking action against products with such chemicals before the evidence is in.' "

Legislators here say they are responding to pressure from their own constituents following decades of increased awareness of the dangers of chemicals in the environment.

"People have become more aware of the long-term patterns by consumers to think products are safe at the outset ... that they want to get ahead of the curve and come up with common-sense solutions," says Wilma Chan, chairwoman of the California Assembly's health committee.

National observers say the US is woefully behind the global curve in facing such issues - Revlon, L'Oreal, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever have already announced alterations in their products in Europe - and will continue to lag unless states forge ahead.

"California is doing what Europe has been trying to do for the past five years and the US federal government has no willingness to tackle," says Joel Tickner, a professor in the department of community health at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Besides banning over 1,000 chemicals from cosmetics last year, the European Union is poised to overhaul regulations on substances in electronics by 2007.

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