Senate Health Committee OKs Study of Chemical Effects on Children

A bill that would require a year-long study of chemicals that are of concern to children be undertaken by four executive branch agencies – with recommendations forwarded to the state legislature – has passed its first hurdle, state Sen. Terry Gerratana, who represents New Britain, Berlin and Farmington, announced.

Gerratana, who is Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee, said Senate Bill 274, “An Act Concerning Chemicals of Concern to Children,” passed the Public Health Committee today on a bipartisan 20-6 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate for debate.

“We had more than three dozen people submit written testimony on an earlier version of this bill at its public hearing; health advocates strongly supported the bill, and chemical and other industry lobbyists strongly opposed it,” Gerratana said. “There is no doubt that the tens of thousands of chemicals in our environmental are affecting human health, and children in particular. But how we go about collecting the data on those chemicals, and how we manage them, is a vast and important undertaking. I think this bill is an important first step in doing that.”

Specifically, the bill requires  the state departments of Public Health, Energy and Environmental Protection, Consumer Protection and the Chemical Innovations Institute at the University of Connecticut Health Center prepare and submit a report to three committees of the General Assembly on or by January 15, 2013 that:

• Lists chemicals identified by other states to be of concern to children, and a description of any action taken by a state to regulate such chemicals;
• Describes programs administered by other states and governmental entities that evaluate and regulate such chemicals;
• Describes regulations in Connecticut relating to the use of chemicals in manufacturing and the disposal of such chemicals;
• Describes programs administered by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that regulate the use of such chemicals;
• Evaluates whether the state Department of Consumer Protection can monitor and enforce the regulation of such chemicals, including bans, labeling and reporting; 
• Opines on whether the state should regulate any such chemical;
• Recommends ways to improve the state’s regulation of such chemicals, including the use of safer alternatives;
• Evaluates the potential use of green chemistry to remediate the effects of such chemicals.

Submitted by Senate Democrats.