2007 California Health and Safety Code Part 3. Children\'s Environmental Health Center

CA Codes (hsc:900-901)

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
SECTION 900-901



900.  There is hereby created the Children's Environmental Health
Center within the Environmental Protection Agency.  The primary
purposes of the center shall include all of the following:
   (a) To serve as the chief advisor to the Secretary for
Environmental Protection and to the Governor on matters within the
jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency relating to
environmental health and environmental protection as each of those
matters relates to children.
   (b) To assist the boards, departments, and offices within the
Environmental Protection Agency to assess the effectiveness of
statutes, regulations, and programs designed to protect children from
environmental hazards.
   (c) To coordinate within the Environmental Protection Agency and
with other state agencies, regulatory efforts, research and data
collection, and other programs and services that impact the
environmental health of children, and coordinate with appropriate
federal agencies conducting related regulatory efforts and research
and data collection.
   (d) In consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and notwithstanding
Section 7550.5 of the Government Code, to report to the Legislature
and the Governor no later than December 31, 2001, on the progress of
the state board and the office toward implementing the act that added
this part during the 1999-2000 Regular Session and to make
recommendations for any statutory or regulatory changes that may be
necessary to carry out the intent of that act to protect the public
health, including infants and children, from air pollutants and toxic
air contaminants.


901.  (a) As used in this section:
   (1) "Center" means the Children's Environmental Health Center
established pursuant to Section 900.
   (2) "Office" means the Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment.
   (b) On or before June 30, 2001, the office shall review cancer
risk assessment guidelines for use by the office and the other
entities within the California Environmental Protection Agency to
establish cancer potency values or numerical health guidance values
that adequately address carcinogenic exposures to the fetus, infants,
and children.
   (c) The review required by subdivision (b) shall include a review
of existing state and federal cancer risk guidelines, as well as new
information on carcinogenesis, and shall consider the extent to which
those guidelines address risks from exposures occurring early in
life.
   (d) The review required by subdivision (b) shall also include, but
not be limited to, all of the following:
   (1) The development of criteria for identifying carcinogens likely
to have a greater impact if exposures occur early in life.
   (2) The assessment of methodologies used in existing guidelines to
address early-in-life exposures.
   (3) The construction of a database of animal studies to evaluate
increases in risks from short-term early-in-life exposures.
   (e) On or before June 30, 2004, the office shall finalize and
publish children's cancer guidelines that shall be protective of
children's health.  These guidelines shall be revised and updated as
needed by the office.
   (f) (1) On or before December 31, 2002, the office shall publish a
guidance document, for use by the Department of Toxic Substances
Control and other state and local environmental and public health
agencies, to assess exposures and health risks at existing and
proposed schoolsites.  The guidance document shall include, but not
be limited to, all of the following:
   (A) Appropriate child-specific routes of exposure unique to the
school environment, in addition to those in existing exposure
assessment models.
   (B) Appropriate available child-specific numerical health effects
guidance values, and plans for the development of additional
child-specific numerical health effects guidance values.
   (C) The identification of uncertainties in the risk assessment
guidance, and those actions that should be taken to address those
uncertainties.
   (2) The office shall consult with the Department of Toxic
Substances Control and the State Department of Education in the
preparation of the guidance document required by paragraph (1) to
ensure that it provides the information necessary for these two
agencies to meet the requirements of Sections 17210.1 and 17213.1 of
the Education Code.
   (g) On or before January 1, 2002, the office, in consultation with
the appropriate entities within the California Environmental
Protection Agency, shall identify those chemical contaminants
commonly found at schoolsites and determined by the office to be of
greatest concern based on criteria that identify child-specific
exposures and child-specific physiological sensitivities.  On or
before December 31, 2002, and annually thereafter, the office shall
publish and make available to the public and to other state and local
environmental and public health agencies and school districts,
numerical health guidance values for five of those chemical
contaminants identified pursuant to this subdivision until the
contaminants identified have been exhausted.
   (h) On and after January 1, 2002, and biennially thereafter, the
center shall report to the Legislature and the Governor on the
implementation of this section as part of the report required by
subdivision (d) of Section 900.  The report shall include, but not be
limited to, information on revisions or modifications made by the
office and other entities within the California Environmental
Protection Agency to cancer potency values and other numerical health
guidance values in order to be protective of children's health.  The
report shall also describe the use of the revised health guidance
values in the programs and activities of the office and the other
boards and departments within the California Environmental Protection
Agency.
   (i) Nothing in this section relieves any entity within the
California Environmental Protection Agency of complying with Chapter
3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 2 of Division 3 of Title
2 of the Government Code, to the extent that chapter is applicable to
the entity on or before July 19, 2000, or January 1, 1998.

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