US Lawmakers are looking for negotiation breakthroughs on stalled legislation. The Consumer Product Safety Commission overhaul is currently tied up in various complications and backroom clashes, according to this article. Legislation to provide more money for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, stiffen standards for toy safety and increase penalties for defective products is perhaps the most likely to see the light of day. Staff negotiations to reach a final agreement have already begun.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new legislation to protect consumers from unsafe products and tainted food and drugs. The proposed legislation arms the minister of health with far-reaching new powers to pull products off the shelf. It follows a series of high-profile voluntary recalls of toxic toys, tainted food and contaminated drugs in 2007.

Some 30,000 chemicals currently in use, including acids, metals, solvents, surfactants, and glues, have to be pre-registered at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) between 1st June and 1st December 2008. As the new chemicals legislation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals) will enter into operation on 1st June, the European Commission and ECHA are alerting companies of their obligations.

“Heal the Bay” in California is calling for a mandatory 25 cent fee on the distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags at all large grocery stores and pharmacies statewide. The bill differs from a previous one by another lawmaker, which called for reductions on a longer-range basis. Funds raised would be directed back to local governments on a per-capita basis for litter prevention and reduction efforts.

The City of San Jose received a Green California Leadership Award for its Environmentally Preferable Procurement Program at the 2008 Green California Summit and Exposition in Sacramento. The Environmentally Preferable Procurement Program (EP3) is a green approach to reduce the environmental impact of City operations and service delivery by identifying and procuring environmentally superior goods and services.

Sales of "natural" household cleaning products have soared, increasing 26 percent in the past year, but many cleaning jobs can often be handled with nontoxic ingredients you already have around the house, such as vinegar or baking soda. This article offers several examples of common household solutions that can truly be considered green, as an alternative to the marketing of green products, which has reached a fever pitch, according to this article.

California is about to begin a debate on whether to ban food and beverage containers containing bisphenol A sold in California. The state passed a similar ban on six phthalates in 2007; four of the six phthalates targeted by the Legislature were on California's Proposition 65 list of harmful chemicals. According to this article, bisphenol A should not be in the same category, because it has been widely tested and is generally recognized as safe.

Bisphenol A's propensity to leach from hundreds of everyday consumer products, including food packaging, baby bottles, water bottles, infant formula containers has been a concern for scientists for the past 10 years. The chemical and plastics industries insist that BPA is safe, and their pitch to lawmakers often begins by stating that the federal Food and Drug Administration cleared BPA of toxicity concerns. According to this article, the FDA has stated that recent claims relied on just two studies that didn't find harm, and they don't mention that Congress is investigating the FDA's current BPA standard for safety.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is seeking comments from the public on its California Green Chemistry Initiative on the questions below. Comments are due by April 23, 2008 and can be sent by email to Green.Chemistry@dtsc.ca.gov or at http://californiagreenchemistry.squarespace.com/welcome/.

1. How much should the tax be on hazardous chemicals produced, used, or distributed in California?

2. What information would trigger a ban of a chemical by the state of California?

3. What incentives should the state of California provide to promote the development of safer chemical or product alternatives?

4. What would be the appropriate response by the state of California for failure to use safer alternatives?

5. What would be the appropriate response by the state of California for failure to disclose product ingredients?

6. By what date should the state of California require reusable or biodegradable non-petroleum based packaging?

7. How can industry use a multi-media standard, such as ISO 14000, to demonstrate they achieve performance above and beyond compliance with regulatory standards for product and processes?