OEHHA Extends Comment Period on Hazard ID Materials Related to BPA Listing Under Prop. 65

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has extended the deadline for public comments on hazard identification materials on BPA and female reproductive toxicity from April 6 to April 20, 2015, in response to a request from the American Chemistry Council.

OEHHA has also announced that the May 7 meeting of its Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (DARTIC) to consider the addition of bisphenol A (BPA) to its list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity will be continued on May 21 in the same location if the committee is unable to finish its deliberations on May 7.

Citing the availability of new epidemiological and toxicological data, DARTIC will assess “whether BPA has been clearly shown by scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles to cause female reproductive toxicity.” After adding BPA to the list of reproductive toxicants under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65) in April 2013, OEHHA delisted the substance following a court injunction. In January 2015, the court ruled that the agency could list BPA even if DARTIC did not include the substance on its own list, finding that “OEHHA is mandated by law to list a chemical even after the state’s qualified experts have declined to do so if the chemical meets one of the other listing requirements.” Additional details about the matter appear in Issue 550 of this Update. See OEHHA News Release, March 13, 2015.

Issue 558