Cal. HSC § 901 — California Code / Code hsc / Division 1 / Part 3 / Section 901
Section 901
Status: in_force

(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.