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Prop 65 Listing of Two Plastic Additives Under Attack
California Currents|Online, Summer 2009 - Update
By Yi Wang
The chemical industry, represented by the American Chemistry Council, spends millions of dollars each year in California protecting the industry's profits and blocking efforts to protect the environment and the public from harmful chemicals. The most recent battle has been over adding the plastic additives bisphenol A (BPA) and styrene to California's Proposition 65 list.
Under Proposition 65, chemicals that are identified as causing cancer or reproductive and developmental toxicity by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), California EPA's scientific advisory department, are listed and businesses must post warnings about the presence of such substances in their products and facilities.
BPA, which is used in baby bottles and plastic containers marked #7, children's toys and cups, and food can linings, can cross the placenta and disrupt normal prenatal development. It has also been linked to reproductive harm, heart disease, cancer, and immunological problems.
At a recent public hearing, the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Committee, which advises OEHHA on such chemicals, concluded that despite the more than 200 studies demonstrating BPA's health effects, the scientific evidence did not support listing it as a reproductive or developmental toxicant. Proponents of the Prop 65 listing who were present at the hearing, including Clean Water Action staff, have cited numerous irregularities-links between industry and committee members, an unbalanced allocation of time to presenters that favored industry, confusion among the committee members about legal standards, and the failure of OEHHA staff to correct committee members' misunderstandings-as the basis of their complaint that the hearing was mishandled and that the committee should reconsider its decision.
OEHHA proposed listing styrene, which is used to produce plastics and resins such as those used in food packaging, as a carcinogen under Proposition 65 based on international and federal government research programs having identified styrene as a probable human carcinogen. These programs based their determinations on animal research and human epidemiologic studies.
In August, the styrene industry successfully sued OEHHA in a Sacramento superior court by claiming that the labor code mechanism being applied to justify the listing is not a legal process. Having won the lawsuit, the industry will now be able to block OEHHA's plans to list several chemicals as Prop 65 carcinogens under the labor code mechanism.
Publication Date:
09/09/2009
In this issue of California Currents|online:
At its October hearing the State Water Board will consider approving a San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board plan to address polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Bay. These chemicals, which were banned in the 1970s, are linked to cancer, developmental impairment, and other serious health impacts. They accumulate in the fat of living organisms, including fish and the people who eat them.
Prop 65 Listing of Two Plastic Additives Under Attack
The chemical industry, represented by the American Chemistry Council, spends millions of dollars each year in California protecting the industry's profits and blocking efforts to protect the environment and the public from harmful chemicals. The most recent battle has been over adding the plastic additives bisphenol A (BPA) and styrene to California's Proposition 65 list.
Welcome Virginia Madueño, Central Valley Community Organizer
In February 2009, Clean Water Action welcomed Virginia Madueño to our California team as we expand our outreach to communities in the northern Central Valley who do not have access to clean water. We are delighted to have Virginia working with us and wanted you to hear, in her own words, about the work she is doing. "The Central Valley is the agriculture capital of California and perhaps the nation. As the daughter of migrant farm workers, I learned to appreciate the farmland that surrounded us because it represented the livelihood of my and countless other families throughout the region. As fertile as the ground is for agriculture however, the Valley is also plagued with water quality issues. Historically, I grew up being concerned about water shortages and drought while not realizing we also face a fundamental water quality problem-the lack of access in many communities to clean and affordable drinking water."
State Legislators Propose Controversial Delta Bill Package
On August 4, Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly released legislation to address the problems of the Delta, where a precipitous decline in local species that prompted a court-ordered reduction in pumping has sparked serious discussions about how to restore the region's ecosystem. Key leaders met behind closed doors for several months to craft this legislation.
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