California's Revised Microbeads Bill Passes Senate

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It has been a seesaw ride for legislative attempts to ban microbeads in California, although a bill restricting cosmetic and personal care products containing these materials has passed the Assembly and will head to the governor's desk to be signed into law. 

California assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) said the Assembly on late Tuesday approved a revised version of Assembly Bill 888, which prohibits the use of microbeads. A day earlier, it received a legislative nod from the California Senate, passing 24-14, after a previous version was crushed by a vote of 19-16 in the Senate. The first time around, the bill fell two votes short of the 21 votes it needed to pass, even though a number of other states in the U.S. have already banned the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products

A similar bill in California lost by one vote a year ago.

The earlier version of AB-888 prohibited, on and after Jan. 1, 2020, a person, as defined, from selling or offering for promotional purposes in California "a personal care product containing plastic microbeads that are used to exfoliate or cleanse in a rinse-off product, as specified." Also, it exempted from those prohibitions the sale or promotional offer of a product containing less than 1 part per million (ppm) by weight of plastic microbeads.

The amended version of AB-888 removed this wording that required the use of natural products as exfoliants in any alternative developed by the cosmetics industry as well as state oversight in reviewing the microbead alternatives. The revised bill still maintains that plastic microbeads are prohibited on and after Jan. 1, 2020.

Read more of the story on GCI's affiliate site, Cosmetics & Toiletries

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