Washington State Adopts Children's Safe Product Rule to Control Chemicals of Concern to Children

Washington State has adopted a new rule implementing the state's 3-year old Children's Safe Product Act law.  Amongst other things, the rule requires companies to report all children's products manufactured or imported for sale in Washington that contain any of 66 "Chemicals of High Concern to Children" (CHCC) that exceed the "Practical Quantification Limit" (PQL).  The PQL is defined as "the lowest concentration that can be reliably measured within specified limits of precision, accuracy, representativeness, completeness, and comparability during routine laboratory operating conditions."

The rule provides for a phase-in period for reporting different categories of products and the size of the manufacturer and size of the products.  Within 12 months, the largest companies who are making products that are likely to come in contact with the skin of children or be placed in a child's mouth, must make their first report.  First reporting extends out to as long as 84 months (7 years) for "tiny" companies making products with limited potential for contact with children's skin. After the first notice date, reporting must occur annually on the anniversary of the first notice date.

The list of 66 Chemicals of High Concern to Children includes many of the same chemicals usually seen on such lists, including formaldehyde, benzene, Bisphenol A, many phthalates, brominated flame retardants, PFOS, and heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and molybdenum.

Information on the new rule can be found on the Washington State Department of Ecology web site.

A PDF of the full rule can be downloaded and read here, including the list of 66 CHCCs.

Washington State Moves Forward on Children's Safe Chemical Rules in Lieu of TSCA Action

I have mentioned previously here that with TSCA chemical reform trudging through Congress on the federal level, the States have continued to move forward with attempts to protect human health and the environment on a more local scale.  One of these efforts is the Children's Safe Product Act (CSPA) passed by Washington State in 2008.  While Governor Gregoire has suspended rulemaking in general because of the state of the economy, she has exempted this particular rule to continue through the development process.  The goal of the proposed law is to focus on protecting children from toxic chemicals.

According to the Department of Ecology, which manages health and safety issues in Washington, the CSPA consists of two parts:

The first part "limited the amount of lead, cadmium and phthalates allowed in children's products sold in Washington after July 1, 2009. These standards were substantially preempted when the U.S. Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in July, 2008. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission will enforce this act."  So this part is essentially dormant.

"The second part of the CSPA requires Ecology, in consultation with the Department of Health, to develop a list of chemicals that manufacturers must report on. As required by the law, chemicals on the list are toxic and have either been found in children’s products or have been documented to be present in human tissue (blood, breast milk, etc.). However, the mere presence of these chemicals in children’s products does not necessarily indicate that there is a risk of exposure." 

Rules to implement this second part of the CSPA are currently open for public comment until December 31st.  These draft rule list 59 chemicals considered to be of high concern to children.  Most are familiar to people in the chemical control business as they have been targeted by other states as well as federal and international laws.  The law stipulates that the chemicals selected must be known to be toxic, commonly found in products used by children, are used in home environments, and found in biomonitoring of human blood and tissue samples. 

Once the final rules are issued, "manufacturers of children's products must report to Ecology if their products contain these chemicals."  These notifications will be required by law on a particular schedule, but the CSPA does not stipulate what happens once they are notified.  Presumably the state is interested in collecting data on what chemicals, and in what volumes, are used in the state so they can take any needed action.