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Vermont House Approves Amended Toxics in Consumer Products Bill

On April 29, 2014, the Vermont House of Representatives passed a substantially revised version of S.239, a toxics in consumer products bill introduced by the Vermont Senate in January 2014. GLO previously reported on the Vermont Senate version of the bill, which would require manufacturers of consumer products containing chemicals of very high concern to notify the Vermont Department of Health and to pay $2,000 per such chemical.

The amended bill has substantially narrowed the scope of consumer products that would be subject to its provisions. Among the changes in the House version:

  • The bill’s scope has been narrowed to children’s consumer products;
  • Packaging has been excluded from the definition of “consumer products”;
  • Sixty-six “chemicals of very high concern to children” are listed.  The list, which may be expanded by rule-making, includes phthalates, bisphenol-A and heavy metals;
  • The Vermont Department of Health may require labeling of children’s consumer products, or ban their sale, by rule-making based on specific factual findings.  The Senate version did not require any specific findings to be made prior to imposing a labeling requirement or product ban.

The House-amended version of the bill now will be sent back to the Vermont Senate.

Ms. Grimaldi maintains a diverse environmental law practice focusing on chemical and product regulation and litigation defense. Her practice areas include Proposition 65, California's Safer Consumer Products Regulations, California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Act and the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. Ms. Grimaldi graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law magna cum laude and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Bacteriology from University of California, Davis. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a research assistant in laboratories at the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Research Institute and at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.