Senate Bill 797, which CJAC opposes, failed to pass the Assembly on Wednesday. It received 35 aye votes; 41 are needed.
The bill, authored by authored by Senators Fran Pavley (D-Santa Monica) and Carol Liu (D-Pasadena), is essentially a remake of last year's SB 1713 (Migden), which died on the Assembly floor. It would ban use of the chemical Bisphenol A in baby bottles and formula containers beginning in 2011 -- unless the chemical 's use is approved through the newly-constituted green chemistry review process established by legislation last year.
Banning a safe product (BPA has been approved by the FDA and the European Food Safety Agency) would very likely lead to unnecessary lawsuits. The makers of silicone breast implants, for example, dealt with only 150 lawsuits in the 30 years prior to an FDA ban. This number increased to more than 5,000 per year in each of the four years following the ban. The implants were ultimately determined to be safe -- but not before the company that made them went bankrupt as a result of the lawsuits.
The Civil Justice Association of California is concerned because almost half of the national class action lawsuits regarding BPA originated in California. Passage of this bill would enflame those lawsuits.
The alleged science behind the bill is weak. In addition to the FDA and European Union approvals, the California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) -- the lead agency for the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) -- declined to require Proposition 65 warning labels for BPA.
Senate Bill 797 was granted reconsideration -- and is therefore eligible for another vote before the end of session deadline on Friday.