1. Issued by / date / date of implementation

Governor of the State of Illinois USA / 11.02.2010 / January 2012, the latest

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2. Type of legislation

Local legislation to be implemented in the State of Illinois, USA

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3. General purpose

The Act supports the State of Illinois Policy to reduce exposure of its citizens to toxic chemicals, and provides measures to be taken for safer consumer products intended for use by children and any consumer product containing a chemical of high concern that when used or disposed of will likely result in a child being exposed to that chemical.

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4. Substitution relevant paragraphs

Section 5 presents the Statement of policy of the State of Illinois: protect public health and environment by reducing the exposure of its citizens and vulnerable populations, such as children, to toxic chemicals, when safer alternatives exist.

Section 15 presents the measures to define the ‘chemical of high concern’. The Director of the Illinois Environmental Agency should publish a ‘list of chemicals of high concern to public health or the environment of the State of Illinois’ containing substances for which evidence is available that they are one or more of the following: carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive or developmental toxin, endocrine disruptor, persistent or bioaccumulative toxin.

According to Section 20 the Director of the Environmental Agency has to designate as ‘ priority chemicals’ those substances on the list of high concern that are classified as “known to be a human carcinogen” in the most recent report on carcinogens by the National Toxicology Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Director may designate a chemical of high concern as a priority chemical if the Director has evidence that finds one or more of the following on the chemical:

• The chemical has been found through biomonitoring to be present in human blood, umbilical cord blood, breast milk, urine, or other bodily tissues or fluids
• The chemical has been found through sampling and analysis to be present in household dust, indoor air, drinking water, or elsewhere in the home environment
• The chemical has been found through monitoring to be present in fish, wildlife, or the natural environment
• The chemical has been found to be present in a consumer product used or present in the home
• The chemical has been identified as a high production volume chemical by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• The sale or use of the chemical or a product containing the chemical has been banned in another state within the United States

In reviewing the list the Director shall prioritize designation of chemicals that have been one or more of the following:

• Characterized as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” in the most recent report on carcinogens by the National Toxicology Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Classified as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans” in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent list of chemicals evaluated for carcinogenic potential.
• Identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as causing birth defects, hormone disruption, or harm to reproduction or development.

Each manufacturer and distributor of a children’s product that contains a priority chemical shall notify the Director of the presence of the priority chemical in the children’s product .

Section 30 – Prohibition on sale specifies that The Director may prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution in the State of a children’s product containing a priority chemical if:

• children and vulnerable populations are exposed to the priority chemical; and
• one or more safer alternatives to the priority chemical are available at a comparable cost.

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5. Assessment of relevance for substitution

The Act focuses on children products but it also contains information applicable to other exposed groups and to the environment. Measures to define and identify substance of high concern as well as priority substances, correlated with the state policy to reduce exposure to such chemicals when safer alternatives exist, stimulate the search for safer substitutes. Moreover, the existence of safer alternatives is one of the criteria that allows for prohibition measures regarding products containing priority substances.

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6. Link to the legal text

Illinois Toxic Chemical Safety Act.

Last update:

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