CA Senate Committee Revises Bill Regulating PFASs to Remove Outright Ban

The California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality has amended AB-958 on the regulation polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to remove a prohibition on the manufacture, sale, or distribution of any product that contains PFASs with eight or more carbon atoms. Instead, the bill requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to regulate all PFASs in food-contact substances under the Green Chemistry program. (For background information the Green Chemistry program, see the PackagingLaw.com article, California’s Green Chemistry Initiative: Impact and Update.)

More specifically, the current version of AB-958:

1. Requires DTSC to revise its 2015–17 Priority Product Work Plan to include food-contact substances containing PFASs for consideration and evaluation as a potential priority product under the state’s Green Chemistry program.
2. Requires DTSC, on or before January 1, 2019, to identify food-contact substances containing PFASs as draft priority products.
3. Requires DTSC, on or before January 1, 2020, to begin the adoption of regulations, in accordance with Green Chemistry statutes, for the identified food-contact substances.

The bill was passed by the California Assembly on June 1, 2017 and referred to the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality on June 14. That committee amended the bill on June 21. After the bill was amended, it was re-referred to the Environmental Quality Committee.