HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2855        FILED ON: 2/18/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 939

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

James K. Hawkins

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act for Massachusetts toxic free kids.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2855        FILED ON: 2/18/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 939

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act for Massachusetts toxic free kids.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 21A of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 26 the following sections:-

Section 27. For the purposes of sections 27 through 31, inclusive, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:-

“Board”, the science advisory board of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

“Children”, natural persons under the age of 12.

“Children’s product”, consumer products for use by children including: toys; children's cosmetics; children's jewelry; a product to help a child with sucking or teething, to facilitate sleep, relaxation, or the feeding of a child, or to be worn as clothing by a child; child car seats, school supplies, personal care products, children’s novelty products, children’s bedding, furniture, and furnishings” This includes products that meet any of the following conditions: represented in its packaging, display, or advertising as appropriate for use by children; sold in conjunction with, attached to, or packaged together with other products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children; or sold in any of the following: retail store, catalogue, or online website, in which a person exclusively offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children; or a discrete portion of a retail store, catalogue, or online website, in which a person offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children.

“Council”, the administrative council of the toxics use reduction act as established in chapter 21I of the General Laws.

"Dangerous chemical" means (a) the following chemicals:

CASRN13674-87-8 Tris (1, 3 dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate

CASRN71-43-2 Benzene

CASRN7439-92-1 lead and compounds (inorganic)

CASRN7439-97-6 Mercury and mercury compounds, including methyl 46 mercury (CASRN 22967-92-6)

CASRN50-00-0 Formaldehyde

CASRN1332-21-4 Asbestos

CASRN7440-38-2 Arsenic and arsenic compounds including arsenic trioxide (CASRN 1327-53-3) 51 and dimethyl arsenic (CASRN 75-60-5)

CASRN7440-43-9 Cadmium

Any chemicals in the class of per-or polyfluoroalklyl substances

(b) a chemical adopted by the department pursuant to section 28 (d) (3) of this title.

“Department”, the department of environmental protection.

“De minimis level”, (a) for a hazardous chemical that is an intentionally added chemical in a component of a consumer product, the practical quantification limit; (b) for a hazardous chemical that has a contaminant present in a component of a consumer product, a concentration of 100 parts per million; or (c) for an engineered nanoobject there shall be no de minimis level.

“Engineered nanoobject”, a material with 1, 2 or 3 external dimensions in the nanoscale.

“IC2”, the Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse, an association of state, local, and tribal governments that promotes a clean environment, healthy communities, and a vital economy through the development and use of safer chemicals and products.

“Manufacturer”, any person, firm, association, partnership, corporation, governmental entity, organization, combination or joint venture which produces a consumer product containing a chemical listed on the toxic chemicals in consumer products list, as established in section 28, or an importer or domestic distributor of a consumer product containing a chemical listed on the toxic chemicals in consumer products list and that is produced in a foreign country

“Nanoscale”, size range from approximately 1 nanometers to 100 nanometers.

“Practical quantification limit”, the lowest concentration of a chemical that can be reliably measured within specified limits of precision, accuracy, representativeness, completeness and comparability during routine laboratory operating conditions. The practical quantification limit is

based on scientifically defensible, standard analytical methods. The practical quantification limit for a given chemical may be different depending on the matrix and the analytical method used.

“Institute”, the Toxics Use Reduction Institute as established in chapter 21I of the General Laws.

“Toy”, a product designed or intended by the manufacturer to be used by a child at play.

Section 28. Toxic Chemicals in Consumer Products List.

(a) No later than 180 days after the effective date of this section, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection , in consultation with the the Toxics Use Reduction Institute Administrative Council, and the Science Advisory Board, shall publish the Toxic Chemicals of Concern in consumer products list, hereinafter referred to as “the chemicals of concern list”, which shall be available to the public on the department’s website.

(b) Criteria for listing such toxic chemicals in consumer products pursuant to subsection (a) shall include chemicals recognized as carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins; chemicals recognized as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals; chemicals recognized as endocrine disruptors; and other chemicals of equivalent concern as determined by the institute, in consultation with the science advisory board. At a minimum, the list shall include the chemicals listed in the State of Vermont State Chemicals of Concern, State of Oregon Chemicals of Concern, State of New York Chemicals of Concern, Washington State list of Chemicals of Concern and the State of Maine List of Chemicals of High Concern. At least every 4 years, the Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, Administrative Council, and the Science Advisory Board, shall refine the list to incorporate new scientific information and data, and the council shall publish a revised version of the list, as needed. Failure to refine the list shall not invalidate the list.

(c) In preparing the chemicals of concern list, the institute may rely on additional published authoritative lists of chemical categorizations including, but not limited to, the Canadian

Domestic Substances List Categorization, the European Commission list of Substances of Very High concern, the California Safer Consumer Products list of Chemicals of Concerns, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer list of carcinogens.

Section 29 Dangerous Chemicals List

No later than 180 days after the effective date of this section, the council, in consultation with the board, the committee, and the institute, shall publish the dangerous chemicals in children’s products list, hereinafter referred to as “the dangerous chemicals list”, which shall be available to the public on the department’s website.

(a) The department shall include the following chemicals on the dangerous chemicals list”

CASRN13674-87-8 Tris (1, 3 dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate

CASRN71-43-2 Benzene

CASRN7439-92-1 lead and compounds (inorganic)

CASRN7439-97-6 Mercury and mercury compounds, including methyl 46 mercury (CASRN 22967-92-6)

CASRN50-00-0 Formaldehyde

CASRN1332-21-4 Asbestos

CASRN7440-38-2 Arsenic and arsenic compounds including arsenic trioxide (CASRN 1327-53-3) 51 and dimethyl arsenic (CASRN 75-60-5)

CASRN7440-43-9 Cadmium

Any chemicals in the class of per-or polyfluoroalklyl substances

(b) The department, in consultation with the Toxic Use Reduction Institute, Science Advisory Board, and Administrative Council, may identify a chemical as a dangerous chemical if, upon such review, it is present in a children's product and meets any of the following criteria:

(i) The chemical or its metabolites have been found through biomonitoring to be present in humans;

(ii) The chemical has been found through sampling and analysis to be present in household dust, indoor air, drinking water or elsewhere in the home environment;

(iii) The chemical has been found through monitoring to be present in fish, wildlife or the natural environment; or

(iv) The sale or use of the chemical or a children's product containing the chemical has been banned in another state or states within the United States because of the health effects of such chemical.

(c) The department, in consultation with the Toxic Use Reduction Institute, may remove a chemical from the list of dangerous chemicals if, upon review, it determines on the basis of credible scientific evidence that such chemical no longer meets the criteria for listing under paragraph (b) of this subdivision.

Section 30. Not later than July 31, 2023, the department shall promulgate regulations that require a manufacturer, as defined in section 27, of a children’s product for sale in the commonwealth that contains a chemical that is included on the list in an amount greater than a de minimis level to notify the department in writing on a biannual basis. If the listed chemical is an engineered nanoobject then there shall be no de minimis level for the notification threshold and notification of the intentional manufacture or addition of nanoobjects is required regardless of amount. This written notice must include the following information:

(1) the name of the chemical used or produced and its chemical abstracts service registry number; (2) a brief description of the product or product component containing the chemicals. This must include the Global Product Classification product brick description; (3)The brand name, product model, and the universal product code (UPC) if the product has such a code

(4) a description of the function of the chemical in the product; (5) the amount of the chemical used in each unit of the product or product component, which may be reported in ranges, rather than the exact amount; (6) the name and address of the manufacturer and the name, address, and phone number of a contact person for the manufacturer, (7) The function of the chemical in the product.

(5) A manufacturer may report ranges of the amount of a chemical in a children's product, rather than the exact amount, provided that if there are multiple chemical values for a given component in a particular product category, the manufacturer shall use the largest value for reporting.

The ranges are as follows:

Equal to or more than the PQL but less than 100 ppm (0.01%).

Equal to or more than 100 ppm (0.01%) but less than 500 ppm (0.05%)

Equal to or more than 500 ppm (0.05%) but less than 1,000 ppm (0.1%)

Equal to or more than 1,000 (0.1%) ppm but less than 5,000 ppm (0.5%).

Equal to or more than 5,000 ppm (0.5%) but less than 10,000 ppm (1.0%)

Equal to or more than 10,000 p

Section 31 (a) By January 1, 2024, the department shall make reported information about toxic chemicals in children’s products available to the public via the IC2 database. The department may authorize the IC2 to maintain information on behalf of Massachusetts including, but not

limited to, information regarding chemicals contained in children’s products and dangerous chemicals pursuant to section 28. At a minimum, the IC2 database shall include chemical names, chemical abstracts service registry numbers, product name, model and universal product code, manufacturer, concentration of the chemical in the product, which can be expressed in a range, and other information that the department determines. In creating this database the department may co-operate with other states that have made similar data publicly available.

Section 33 Notice. (a) A manufacturer of a children's product containing a dangerous chemical shall notify persons that offer the children's prod-uct for sale or distribution in the state, in a form prescribed by the department, of the presence of such dangerous chemical, and provide such persons with information regarding the toxicity of such chemical.

Section 33 Sales prohibition on dangerous chemicals Effective INSERT no person shall distribute, sell or offer for sale in this state a children's product containing chemicals on the dangerous chemicals list.

No later than three years after a chemical is added to the dangerous chemicals list, no person shall distribute, sell, or offer for sale in this state a children's product that contains the chemical added to the dangerous chemicals list, pursuant to Section 29(b) of this title.

This provision shall not apply: (a) to a children's product solely based on its containing an enclosed battery or enclosed electronic components and (b) where state regulation of children's products is preempted by federal law. The commissioner may exempt a children's product from this prohibition if, in the commissioner's judgment, the lack of availability of the children's product could pose an unreasonable risk to public health, safety or welfare.

Section 34 Beginning in January 1, 2024, the department shall submit a report on a biennial basis, not later than July 1, on the toxic chemicals in children's products to the joint committee on public health, the joint committee on the environment, natural resources and agriculture, the house and senate committees on global warming and climate change and any other appropriate standing committees of the legislature. The department shall also make the report available on its website and may publicize it through any other appropriate channels. The report shall include policy options for addressing children's products that contain chemicals included on the

chemicals of concern and dangerous chemicals lists, including recommendations for additional ways to inform consumers about toxic chemicals in products, policies to protect consumers from hazardous chemical exposures, and chemicals for which it would be beneficial to conduct alternatives assessments.

Section 35. The department shall promulgate regulations and fees pertaining to the implementation and enforcement of this act. These regulations and fees shall be issued no later than July 31, 2023.