From the LA Times:

AB 1879 from Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) started out like any number of other bills targeting individual chemicals known to cause such problems as birth defects, cancer and lung disorders. But this week, Feuer and the bill’s coauthors reached a deal with the California Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to amend the bill so that it takes a more comprehensive approach — and lays the framework for the governor’s Green Chemistry scheme.

California environmental regulators have long focused on emissions from industrial facilities and vehicles. Feuer’s bill would for the first time give them the power to regulate chemicals in consumer products. That doesn’t necessarily mean banning such chemicals, though the state would have that option if there were clear evidence of health risks; it might mean simply requiring better product labeling or restricting the use of some substances. The bill also would set up an Internet database containing current information and research on toxic chemicals, create an advisory panel of scientists to guide chemicals policy and establish regulations for analyzing greener alternatives.

Click on the above link for more information or here for the text of AB 1879.

The slides for the public meeting RE: California’s Proposed Amendments to the Consumer Products Regulation are available here (PDF). They contain a useful summary of California’s proposed actions on VOCs.

From the Air Resources Board - the public availibility of the modified text of the California Consumer Product Regulations. The modified text is available as a PDF here. The deadline for public comment is August 27, 2008. The Public Comments received are available here.

The California Air Resources Board has called a public meeting “to discuss and evaluate technical issues surrounding potential Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emission reduction opportunities from Paint and Lacquer Thinners, Multi-purpose Solvents and so called “Packaged Solvents”.

The meeting can be attended in person or via teleconference on Wednesday August 26th.

A PDF of the meeting is available here.

From the Air Resources Board:

The following tables provide the results of the 2006 Consumer and Commercial Products Survey (survey) for select categories. This table lists the total tons of VOC per day (VOC includes fragrance) reported by survey category.

The categories are as follows:

• Double-phase Air Fresheners
• Glass Cleaner (nonaerosol)
• General Purpose Cleaner (nonaerosol)
• General Purpose Degreaser (nonaerosol)
• General Purpose Degreaser
• Furniture Maintenance Product (aerosol)

The San Francisco Chronicle on a potential new law for workplace exposure limits in California:

An Assembly leader is pledging a down-to-the-wire fight for legislation that would require the state to adopt worker exposure standards for all known cancer-causing chemicals.

Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sally Lieber says the measure is needed because a state board responsible for setting industrial safety standards has been guilty of “a reprehensible level of inaction” regarding California workers who are exposed to dangerous chemicals on the job.

The Mountain View Democrat’s measure, which is opposed by a powerful coalition of business groups, has stalled in past sessions, and it now languishes in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Opponents say it is an overly broad, anti-business measure.

The legislative showdown over the bill, AB515, comes less than a month after The Chronicle published a series describing workers’ angry concerns about cancer-causing chemicals at a chemical plant in the Mojave Desert, Searles Valley Minerals. After the series appeared, several lawmakers, including Lieber, called for the state to investigate the matter.

Click on the above link for more information. The full text of AB515 is available here.

From the OEHHA:

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) of the California Environmental Protection Agency is adding gallium arsenide to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer and hexafluoroacetone, nitrous oxide and vinyl cyclohexene dioxide to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity for the purposes of Proposition 65. The listing of gallium arsenide, hexafluoroacetone, nitrous oxide and vinyl cyclohexene dioxide is effective August 1, 2008…

Cancer:

Gallium arsenide - CAS No. 1303-00-0

Reproductive Toxicity:

Hexafluoroacetone - CAS No. 684-16-2 - Male reproductive toxicity

Nitrous oxide - CAS No. 10024-97-2 - Developmental toxicity

Vinyl cyclohexene dioxide - CAS No. 106-87-6 - Female and male reproductive toxicity

Click on the above link for more information.

From the OEHHA:

On June 27, 2008, OEHHA published a notice in the California Regulatory Notice Register (Register 08, No. 26-Z) announcing its intent to list molinate under Proposition 65 as a chemical known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity in accordance with the regulatory criteria in section 25306 of Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations (formerly section 12306 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations.) The publication of the notice initiated a 30‑day public comment period which would have closed on July 28, 2008. OEHHA has received requests from interested parties seeking an extension of the comment period to allow for the submission of complete and relevant scientific information. OEHHA hereby extends the public comment period for molinate for 45 days to 5 p.m., Wednesday, August 27, 2008.

Click on the above link for more information.

From the OEHHA:

On June 27, 2008, OEHHA published two separate notices in the California Regulatory Notice Register (Register 08 No. 26-Z) soliciting information which may be relevant to the evaluation of imazalil and thiabendazole and its hypophosphite salt under consideration for possible listing within the context of the Proposition 65 administrative listing regulatory criteria in Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations section 25306 (formerly Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations section 12306.)

The publication of the notices initiated 60‑day public comment periods which would have closed on August 26, 2008. OEHHA has received requests from interested parties seeking an extension of each comment period to allow for the submission of complete and relevant scientific information for both imazalil and thiabendazole and its hypophosphite salt. OEHHA hereby extends the public comment periods for imazalil and thiabendazole and its hypophosphite salt for 45 days to 5 p.m., Wednesday, October 8, 2008.

Click on the above link for more information.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The state’s largest school bus operator has agreed to renovate more than 2,000 buses in California to run cleaner, settling a lawsuit that accused it of exposing children to diesel exhaust in leaky passenger cabins.

The settlement was announced Wednesday by Laidlaw Transit and three environmental groups that sued the company in 2006. Without admitting any wrongdoing, Laidlaw agreed to spend $4.7 million over five years to retrofit buses that are more than five years old, and $23.6 million more to continue renovating those buses or buy new ones.

The company will also pay $6.6 million to the environmental groups and their lawyers. A San Francisco Superior Court judge is scheduled to consider the settlement next month.

Click on the above link for the full story.