The Vermont House has advanced a bill that would ramp up regulatory scrutiny of the chemicals contained in children’s products. But while proponents call the bill an important public safety measure, business interests say it could scare away manufacturers. And the fate of the bill might now rest in the hands of Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The toxics legislation has been a financial boon for the local lobbying industry. In the past few weeks, as the proposal gained steam in the House, nearly every firm in Montpelier has been approached by a business interest looking to kill the bill, or at least narrow its scope.
The toxics legislation has been a financial boon for the local lobbying industry. In the past few weeks, as the proposal gained steam in the House, nearly every firm in Montpelier has been approached by a business interest looking to kill the bill, or at least narrow its scope.
The bill would do a number of things, including requiring companies to notify the Department of Health whether products made or sold in the state contain any of the 66 chemicals on a “watch list.”
But businesses are most concerned about one provision in particular. Until now, it’s taken an act of the Legislature to regulate or ban specific chemicals. But the legislation, advanced by a 114-27 margin in the House Tuesday evening, would transfer that regulatory authority to the Department of Health. And opponents say giving the executive branch unilateral power over the fate of certain manufacturing compounds could discourage new industrial investment.
"For manufacturers considering continued investment in the state, it makes the state look like a risky place to commit a lot of capital." Bill Driscoll, Associated Industries of Vermont
“For manufacturers considering continued investment in the state, it makes the state look like a risky place to commit a lot of capital, a lot of development of production, if the concern is this is an environment that you may end up having your product banned a few years down the road when other states are not going to be taking that same approach,” says Bill Driscoll, vice-president of Associated Industries of Vermont.
Driscoll’s warnings haven’t resonated with lawmakers in the House or Senate, which passed a version of the same toxics legislation last month.
“One lawsuit for a product that created a personal harm to a child is going to cost them a whole lot more than this bill will,” says Westminster Rep. David Deen, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.
Deen’s committee has toned down the Senate bill somewhat, giving the Department of Health the power to regulate only children’s products, as opposed to all goods and products made or sold in Vermont. But the bill still moves the process for banning chemicals out of the Legislature. Deen says part-time lawmakers don’t have the time or expertise to be effective arbiters of chemical science.
“And that means that the audience is not there to be able to dig in and really understand the science behind the chemicals that might be of concern,” Deen says. “So we just felt it was best to leave it to professionals to be able to make those determinations.”
Businesses with hired hands working to minimize the range of the bill include IBM, Keurig Green Mountain, and the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. And their best hope may now lie with the Shumlin Administration, which has yet to tip its hand as to when when, or if, it’ll tell lawmakers to back off.
Earlier this year, officials at the Department of Health told lawmakers they could handle the new duties. But in an interview Tuesday, Commissioner of Health Harry Chen said that now, he’s not so sure.
Chen says the department will have no problem administering the requirement that manufactures disclose whether any of the 66 chemicals appear in their products. But studying those chemicals to determine whether they pose an undue threat to human safety, Chen says, might exceed his department’s research capacity.
Justin Johnson, deputy secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, says the administration supports the elimination of unhealthy toxics, especially in children’s products.
“The challenge is working out how to make that work, and to do it in a way that ensures that Vermont isn’t setting up a system that’s completely different from other states,” Johnson says. “Because that then creates other marketing problems.”
Members of the House and Senate will now meet to negotiate their competing versions of the legislation. Chen and Johnson say they’ll use that process to highlight their concerns with the bill.
