AN ACT Relating to reducing public health threats that particularly impact highly exposed populations, including children and firefighters, by establishing a process for the department of health to restrict the use of toxic flame retardant chemicals in certain types of consumer products; amending RCW 70.240.010 and 70.240.050; and adding new sections to chapter 70.240 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1.  RCW 70.240.010 and 2008 c 288 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Children's cosmetics" means cosmetics that are made for, marketed for use by, or marketed to children under the age of twelve. "Children's cosmetics" includes cosmetics that meet any of the following conditions:

(a) Represented in its packaging, display, or advertising as appropriate for use by children;

(b) 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

(c) Sold in any of the following:

(i) Retail store, catalogue, or online web site, in which a person exclusively offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children; or

(ii) A discrete portion of a retail store, catalogue, or online web site, in which a person offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children.

(2) "Children's jewelry" means jewelry that is made for, marketed for use by, or marketed to children under the age of twelve. "Children's jewelry" includes jewelry that meets any of the following conditions:

(a) Represented in its packaging, display, or advertising as appropriate for use by children under the age of twelve;

(b) Sold in conjunction with, attached to, or packaged together with other products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children;

(c) Sized for children and not intended for use by adults; or

(d) Sold in any of the following:

(i) A vending machine;

(ii) Retail store, catalogue, or online web site, in which a person exclusively offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children; or

(iii) A discrete portion of a retail store, catalogue, or online web site, in which a person offers for sale products that are packaged, displayed, or advertised as appropriate for use by children.

(3)(a) "Children's product" includes any of the following:

(i) Toys;

(ii) Children's cosmetics;

(iii) Children's jewelry;

(iv) A product designed or intended by the manufacturer 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 children; or

(v) ((Child car seats)) Portable infant or child safety seat designed to attach to an automobile seat.

(b) "Children's product" does not include the following:

(i) Batteries;

(ii) Slings and catapults;

(iii) Sets of darts with metallic points;

(iv) Toy steam engines;

(v) Bicycles and tricycles;

(vi) Video toys that can be connected to a video screen and are operated at a nominal voltage exceeding twenty-four volts;

(vii) Chemistry sets;

(viii) Consumer and children's electronic products, including but not limited to personal computers, audio and video equipment, calculators, wireless phones, game consoles, and hand-held devices incorporating a video screen, used to access interactive software and their associated peripherals;

(ix) Interactive software, intended for leisure and entertainment, such as computer games, and their storage media, such as compact disks;

(x) BB guns, pellet guns, and air rifles;

(xi) Snow sporting equipment, including skis, poles, boots, snow boards, sleds, and bindings;

(xii) Sporting equipment, including, but not limited to bats, balls, gloves, sticks, pucks, and pads;

(xiii) Roller skates;

(xiv) Scooters;

(xv) Model rockets;

(xvi) Athletic shoes with cleats or spikes; and

(xvii) Pocket knives and multitools.

(4) "Cosmetics" includes articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body or any part thereof for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance, and articles intended for use as a component of such an article. "Cosmetics" does not include soap, dietary supplements, or food and drugs approved by the United States food and drug administration.

(5) "Department" means the department of ecology.

(6) "High priority chemical" means a chemical identified by a state agency, federal agency, or accredited research university, or other scientific evidence deemed authoritative by the department on the basis of credible scientific evidence as known to do one or more of the following:

(a) Harm the normal development of a fetus or child or cause other developmental toxicity;

(b) Cause cancer, genetic damage, or reproductive harm;

(c) Disrupt the endocrine system;

(d) Damage the nervous system, immune system, or organs or cause other systemic toxicity;

(e) Be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or

(f) Be very persistent and very bioaccumulative.

(7) "Manufacturer" includes any person, firm, association, partnership, corporation, governmental entity, organization, or joint venture that produces ((a)) residential upholstered furniture as defined in RCW 70.76.010 or children's product or an importer or domestic distributor of ((a)) residential upholstered furniture as defined in RCW 70.76.010 or children's product. For the purposes of this subsection, "importer" means the owner of the residential upholstered furniture as defined in RCW 70.76.010 or children's product.

(8) "Phthalates" means di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), diisonoyl phthalate (DINP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), or di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP).

(9) "Toy" means a product designed or intended by the manufacturer to be used by a child at play.

(10) "Trade association" means a membership organization of persons engaging in a similar or related line of commerce, organized to promote and improve business conditions in that line of commerce and not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit.

(11) "Very bioaccumulative" means having a bioconcentration factor or bioaccumulation factor greater than or equal to five thousand, or if neither are available, having a log Kow greater than 5.0.

(12) "Very persistent" means having a half-life greater than or equal to one of the following:

(a) A half-life in soil or sediment of greater than one hundred eighty days;

(b) A half-life greater than or equal to sixty days in water or evidence of long-range transport.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 70.240 RCW to read as follows:

Beginning July 1, 2017, no manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer may manufacture, knowingly sell, offer for sale, distribute for sale, or distribute for use in this state children's products or residential upholstered furniture, as defined in RCW 70.76.010, containing any of the following flame retardants in amounts greater than one thousand parts per million in any product component:

(1) TDCPP;

(2) TCEP;

(3) Decabromodiphenyl ether;

(4) HBCD; or

(5) Additive TBBPA.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 70.240 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall consider whether the following flame retardants meet the criteria of a chemical of high concern for children:

(a) IPTPP;

(b) TBB;

(c) TBPH;

(d) TCPP;

(e) TPP;

(f) V6.

(2)(a) Within one year of the department adopting a rule that identifies a flame retardant in subsection (1) of this section as a chemical of high concern for children, the department of health, in consultation with the department, must create a stakeholder advisory committee for each flame retardant chemical to provide stakeholder input, expertise, and additional information in the development of recommendations as provided under subsection (4) of this section. All advisory committee meetings must be open to the public.

(b) The advisory committee membership must include, but is not limited to, representatives from: Large and small business sectors; community, environmental, and public health advocacy groups; local governments; affected and interested businesses; and public health agencies.

(c) The department may request state agencies and technical experts to participate. The department of health shall provide technical expertise on human health impacts including: Early childhood and fetal exposure, exposure reduction, and safer substitutes.

(3) When developing policy options and recommendations consistent with subsection (4) of this section, the department must rely on credible scientific evidence and consider information relevant to the hazards based on the quantitative extent of exposures to the chemical under its intended or reasonably anticipated conditions of use. The department of health, in consultation with the department, must include the following:

(a) Chemical name, properties, uses, and manufacturers;

(b) An analysis of available information on the production, unintentional production, uses, and disposal of the chemical;

(c) Quantitative estimates of the potential human and environmental exposures associated with the use and release of the chemical;

(d) An assessment of the potential impacts on human health and the environment resulting from the quantitative exposure estimates referred to in (c) of this subsection;

(e) An evaluation of:

(i) Environmental and human health benefits;

(ii) Economic and social impacts;

(iii) Feasibility;

(iv) Availability and effectiveness of safer substitutes for uses of the chemical;

(v) Consistency with existing federal and state regulatory requirements; and

(f) Recommendations for:

(i) Managing, reducing, and phasing out the different uses and releases of the chemical;

(ii) Minimizing exposure to the chemical;

(iii) Using safer substitutes; and

(iv) Encouraging the development of safer alternatives.

(4)(a) The department of health must submit to the legislature recommendations on policy options for reducing exposure, designating and developing safer substitutes, and restricting or prohibiting the use of the flame retardant chemicals identified in subsection (1) of this section as a chemical of high concern for children.

(b) When the department of health, in consultation with the department, determines that flame retardant chemicals identified in subsection (1) of this section as a chemical of high concern for children should be restricted or prohibited from use in children's products, residential upholstered furniture as defined in RCW 70.76.010, or other commercial products or processes, the department of health must include citations of the peer-reviewed science and other sources of information reviewed and ultimately relied upon in support of the recommendation to restrict or prohibit the chemical.

Sec. 4.  RCW 70.240.050 and 2008 c 288 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) A manufacturer of products that are restricted under this chapter must notify persons that sell the manufacturer's products in this state about the provisions of this chapter no less than ninety days prior to the effective date of the restrictions.

(2) A manufacturer that produces, sells, or distributes a product prohibited from manufacture, sale, or distribution in this state under this chapter shall recall the product and reimburse the retailer or any other purchaser for the product.

(3) A manufacturer of ((children's)) products in violation of this chapter is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed five thousand dollars for each violation in the case of a first offense. Manufacturers who are repeat violators are subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars for each repeat offense. Penalties collected under this section must be deposited in the state toxics control account created in RCW 70.l05D.070.

(4) Retailers who unknowingly sell products that are restricted from sale under this chapter are not liable under this chapter.

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