Today's Law As Amended


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AB-2244 Product safety: proofs of purchase: intentionally added bisphenols.(2023-2024)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Paper receipts generate 334,000,000 pounds of waste and over 5,000,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of more than 471,000 cars on the road, and most paper receipts contain chemicals that contaminate other recyclable paper materials.
(b) The Ecology Center has found that 93 percent of paper receipts are coated with bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS) chemicals.
(c) The United States Food and Drug Administration has banned BPA from baby bottles because those chemicals are known to disrupt hormones, causing cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental issues.
(d) The BPA or BPS on receipts can enter peoples’ bodies simply through touch, which poses a major risk to retail workers, who have 30 percent more BPA or BPS found in their bodies than others who do not have regular contact with receipts, according to the Environmental Working Group and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(e) The State of Connecticut banned the use of receipt paper containing BPA in 2011, the State of Illinois banned receipt paper containing BPA in 2019, and the European Union restricted the use of BPA in thermal paper beginning in 2020 and is also investigating similar restrictions on the use of BPS.

SEC. 2.

 Chapter 12.3 (commencing with Section 108943) is added to Part 3 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

CHAPTER  12.3. Proof of Purchase
108943.
 For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:
(a) (1) “Business” means a person that accepts payment through cash, credit, or debit transactions.
(2) “Business” does not include either of the following:
(A) A health care provider, as defined in Section 123105.
(B) An entity organized as a nonprofit institution that has annual gross sales receipts of less than two million dollars ($2,000,000).
(b) “Consumer” means a person who purchases, and does not offer for resale, food, alcohol, other tangible personal property, or services.
(c) “Department” means the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
(d) “Intentionally added bisphenol A” means bisphenol A that a manufacturer has intentionally added to a product and that has a functional or technical effect in the product, including bisphenol A that is an intentional breakdown product of an added chemical that also has a functional or technical effect in the product.
(e) “Intentionally added bisphenols” means bisphenols that a manufacturer has intentionally added to a product and that have a functional or technical effect in the product, including bisphenols that are intentional breakdown products of an added chemical that also have a functional or technical effect in the product.
(f) “Manufacturer” means the person that makes the paper for the paper proof of purchase from raw materials or machinery.
(g) “Person” means any individual, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or company.
(h) “Proof of purchase” means a receipt for the retail sale of food, alcohol, or other tangible personal property, or for the provision of services, provided at the point of sale.
108943.1.
 (a) (1) On and after January 1, 2025, a paper proof of purchase provided to a consumer by a business or created by a manufacturer shall not contain intentionally added bisphenol A.
(2) On and after January 1, 2026, a paper proof of purchase provided to a consumer by a business or created by a manufacturer shall not contain any intentionally added bisphenols.
(b) The department may adopt regulations to implement, interpret, or make specific this chapter.
(c) The department shall post any violation or enforcement action of this chapter on the department’s internet website.
(d) The department shall deposit all penalties collected pursuant to this chapter into the Toxic Substances Control Account for the department to use upon appropriation by the Legislature to enforce this chapter.
(e) (1) The department, the Attorney General, a district attorney, a county counsel, or a city attorney may enforce this section. A violation shall be punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) for a first violation, and not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each subsequent violation.
(2) A prevailing plaintiff who establishes a violation of this chapter shall be entitled to an award of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.