MARCH 13, 2015
VERMONT
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted Friday to
place tougher regulations on manufacturers who sell children’s products
containing toxic chemicals.
The last-minute changes were added to an omnibus health care
bill that passed by a vote of 4-1. The bill includes tweaks to Act 188, which
put in place new chemical safety regulations for children’s products. Gov.
Peter Shumlin enacted the legislation last June.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, said the state should invest
in thermal efficiency programs during a news conference at the Main Street
Landing train station in Burlington on Thursday. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
The changes were proposed to the health care bill as
lawmakers rushed to beat proposed federal regulations that would preempt any
new state toxic chemical rules. Legislators were also under pressure to vote
bills out of committee in order to meet the crossover deadline.
The haste concerned opponents of the changes. They say
lawmakers voted on the provisions without hearing from all stakeholders.
Bill Driscoll, vice president of Associated Industries of
Vermont, said the Senate Health and Welfare Committee did not notify
stakeholders of a vote on the issue. Testimony was not scheduled on the agenda.
“I had to just, like show up,” Driscoll said. “It does not
reflect well on how business should be done in the Legislature.”
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, who introduced the
legislation last session, said more rigorous regulations were eliminated in the
House last year as industry groups lobbied to scale back the bill.
Lyons and advocates had planned to strengthen the law in the
years ahead, but they renewed their effort to pass tougher mandates this
session because Congress is considering new toxic chemical safety regulations
that would block states from passing new rules.
“So, we had some concerns about language that was passed
last year in the toxics bill,” Lyons said. “We wanted to clean that language up
and make sure the intent that we feel is there continues.”
The changes allow the health commissioner to issue
regulations without prior consent from a special advisory group that would
include representatives from industry and advocacy groups. Lyons said it was
unclear whether this group would control the commissioner’s actions.
Another change lowers the bar for the commissioner to ban
the sale of certain chemicals. To ban a chemical currently, the commissioner
must first prove a child can be exposed to a chemical in the product. The new
legislation says a chemical can be banned if there is a potential for exposure.
Environmental groups heralded the changes. They say the new
legislation eases legal concerns that could slow down the regulatory process.
“We’re calling them technical changes,” said Taylor Johnson
of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. “Were trying to make it so the
bill functions as it was intended to. This was intended to be a bill that would
allow the Department of Health to regulate toxic chemicals.”
Driscoll, of AIV, opposes the provisions. The advisory
group’s role was one of the key “hard-fought” compromises made last year, he
said. The purpose of the working group, in his view, is to balance health
concerns with practical and economic considerations.
“The design of the working group was specifically to make
sure that all of the relevant interests and perspectives were brought together.
This does away with that,” Driscoll said.
He supports the current law which requires the commissioner
to prove there is a risk of exposure before banning a chemical. The new
legislation requires the commissioner to show there is the potential of
exposure. Driscoll says the change “undermines” the “real-world context.”
Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, chair of the Senate Health and
Welfare Committee, said the committee was under crossover deadline pressure.
March 13 was the date by which Senate bills had to pass out of committee in
order to be taken up by the House. Ayer will hold a hearing on the changes
Wednesday. She said she is open to amending the bill.
David Englander, senior policy and legal adviser for the
Department of Health, said the administration could not support the changes
because the law has yet to be fully implemented.
“We simply don’t know what’s working and what’s not
working,” he said.
The Vermont Department of Health will list potentially
harmful chemicals on its website starting July 1, 2016. The list will be
reissued biannually. The department will have the authority to regulate harmful
chemicals and could require manufacturers to label or remove them from
products. Only manufacturers that intentionally add harmful chemicals to
products will be required to comply with the law. There are several exemptions
in the law for snow sports equipment, second-hand products and electronics.
Englander said one department employee is working half-time
on the program. He said the department will hold a public hearing on the
proposed rules Thursday.
Source: vtdigger.org