Senate Calendar
wednesday, march 16, 2005
71st DAY OF BIENNIAL SESSION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
ACTION CALENDAR
NEW BUSINESS
ThirdReading
H. 162Telemarketing transactions...... 263
Second Reading
Favorable with Recommendation of Amendment
S. 81Relating to school buses...... 263
S. 84Comprehensive management of exposure to mercury...... 263
Senators Shepard and Sears amendment...... 283
Joint Resolution for Action
JRH 23.Designating March as National Social Work Month in Vermont..284
ORDERS OF THE DAY
ACTION CALENDAR
NEW BUSINESS
ThirdReading
H.162
An act relating to telemarketing transactions.
Second Reading
Favorable with Recommendation of Amendment
S. 81
An act relating to school buses.
Reported favorably with recommendation of amendment by Senator Collins for the Committee on Transportation.
The Committee recommends that the bill be amended as follows:
First: In Sec. 1, 23 V.S.A. § 4(34)(A), subparagraph (iv), on page 2, after the words “other special event” by inserting the following: . No person shall operate a motor coach referred to in this subdivision unless he or she is in possession of a valid school bus endorsement
Second: In Sec. 1, 23 V.S.A. § 4(34), subdivision (D), on page 2, by striking out words “designed to transport more than 10 and fewer than 16 passengers” and inserting in lieu there of the following: designed to transport 11 or more and fewer than 16 passengers
(Committee vote: 6-0-0)
S. 84
An act relating to comprehensive management of exposure to mercury.
Reported favorably with recommendation of amendment by Senator Lyons for the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.
The Committee recommends that the bill be amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:
Sec. 1. 10 V.S.A. chapter 164 is added to read:
Chapter 164. Comprehensive Mercury Management
§ 7101. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS
The general assembly finds and declares that:
(1) Mercury is a persistent and toxic pollutant that bioaccumulates in the environment and poses a serious threat to humans, particularly young children and the developing fetus, and wildlife.
(2) There has been a threefold increase in mercury loading to the environment over the past 150 years. Much of the mercury deposited from the atmosphere is from human and natural sources, but anthropogenic emissions exceed those that occur naturally.
(3) The primary means of human exposure to mercury is the consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish.
(4) Vermont and all other northeastern states have issued statewide fish consumption mercury contamination advisories that recommend limiting or avoiding the consumption of certain freshwater fish caught locally.
(5) While the Vermont departments of environmental conservation, fish and wildlife, and health have undertaken a long-term collaboration to monitor and report on fish tissue mercury in Vermont waters, most lakes and streams remain untested. Of the 560 lakes and ponds tracked by the department of environmental conservation, only 60 of the largest have been monitored for fish mercury. For inland lakes, this corresponds to 51 percent of the lake acreage in Vermont. Only 22 river or stream sites have been tested for fish mercury. This current monitoring approach is not designed to track changes in fish mercury with time in response to management actions, and does not address mercury impacts to fish-eating wildlife.
(6) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Vermont Department of Health recommend limiting the consumption of certain commercial saltwater fish, including canned tuna.
(7) Human exposure to mercury can result in nervous system, kidney, and liver damage and impaired childhood development.
(8) Recent EPA research concludes that 16 percent of American women of childbearing age have unsafe mercury blood levels, and that the annual number of newborn infants at risk in the United States is 630,000.
(9) More than one-half of the mercury deposition is from out-of-region sources, with the largest being coalburning power plants (utility boilers) and industrial boilers.
(10) Implementation of the 1998 New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Mercury Action Plan has led to a decrease in regional mercury emissions of more than 55 percent – primarily due to emissions controls on municipal combustors and medical waste incinerators, both of which burn discarded mercury-added products.
(11) The New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers have set an interim goal in the Mercury Action Plan of 75 percent reduction in anthropogenic emissions by 2010. Achieving this goal will require further reduction measures from in-region combustion sources such as power plants, industrial and commercial boilers, and sewage sludge incinerators, and will require reducing mercury releases that occur through disposal and breakage of products that contain mercury.
(12) The Mercury Task Force of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers adopted a goal to reduce dental wastewater discharges of mercury by having 50 percent of dentists install amalgam separators in each state or jurisdiction by the end of 2005.
(13) In 1998, the Vermont general assembly passed legislation requiring labeling of mercury-added products and banned the disposal of these labeled products in landfills. The agency and municipal solid waste districts implemented numerous mercury education and reduction programs to reduce mercury use in products and to collect spent mercury-added products for proper recycling and disposal. Public education is essential to reducing improper disposal of spent mercury-added products.
(14) Many of the states in the region, including Connecticut, Maine, New York, and Rhode Island, have adopted comprehensive mercury-added product legislation to identify and eliminate unnecessary uses of mercury.
(15) Vermont’s mercury product legislation passed in 1998 does not comprehensively restrict the sale and use of mercury-added products.
(16) Studies conducted for the state of Maine show that mercury-free alternatives exist for a majority of the thousands of products containing mercury components. These products include thermometers, thermostats, flow meters, barometers, manometers, medical devices, and electrical switches and relays.
(17) Studies conducted for the state of Maine show that manufacturers are beginning to market mercury-free versions of all types of mercury-added button cell and other miniature batteries.
(18) Significant use of mercury-added products occurs in health care facilities, schools, and dental practices, in all of which mercury use or release reduction is technically and economically feasible.
(19) Mercury use in novelty products has been banned from sale in several states.
(20) While mercury-added switches have been eliminated from currently manufactured U.S. and foreign manufactured motor vehicles, mercury-added switches are still prevalent in end-of-life motor vehicles previously manufactured. Collection programs for these vehicle switches at end-of-life of the vehicle have proven to be a feasible method to reduce a significant source of mercury release to the region.
(21) Citizens of Vermont, the Vermont environment, and the agency will benefit from comprehensive mercury product legislation that further reduces mercury emissions and is consistent with model mercury product legislation developed jointly by the northeast states.
§ 7102. DEFINITIONS
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Agency” means the Vermont agency of natural resources.
(2) “Component” means a mercuryadded product which is incorporated into another product to form a fabricated mercuryadded product, including electrical switches, relays, and lamps.
(3) “Elemental mercury” means the chemical symbol Hg. Elemental Hg is a silvery-white liquid (at room temperature) with an atomic number of 80 and an atomic mass of 200.57.
(4) “Fabricated mercury-added product” means a product that consists of a combination of individual components that combine to make a single unit, including mercuryadded measuring devices, lamps, and switches.
(5) “Formulated mercury-added product” means a product that is sold as a consistent mixture of chemicals to which mercury or a mercury compound has been intentionally added in order to provide a specific characteristic, appearance, or quality, or to perform a specific function, or for any other reason. This includes laboratory chemicals, cleaning products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and coating materials. For the purposes of this chapter, formulated mercury-added product does not include pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical products, biological products. or any substance that may be lawfully sold over the counter without a prescription under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. “Biological Product” means a virus, therapeutic serum, toxin, antitoxin, vaccine, blood, blood component or derivative, allergenic product or an analogous product, or asphenamine (a derivative of arsphenamine) or any other trivalent organic arsenic compound used for the prevention, treatment, or cure of a disease or condition of human beings.
(6) “Large appliance” includes the following items: discarded refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, ranges, water heaters, dishwashers, freezers, microwave ovens, air conditioners, portable heaters, and other similar domestic and commercial appliances as may be identified by the agency by rule.
(7)(A) “Manufacturer” means any person, firm, association, partnership, corporation, governmental entity, organization, combination, or joint venture that (i) produces a mercury-added product, or (ii) serves as an importer or domestic distributor of a mercury-added product produced outside the United States.
(B) This definition shall not apply to retailers for whom importing is not their primary business.
(C) In the case of a multi-componentmercury-added product, the manufacturer is the last manufacturer to produce or assemble the product.
(8) “Mercury-added component” means a mercuryadded product that is incorporated into another product to form a fabricated mercuryadded product, including electrical switches, relays, and lamps.
(9) “Mercury-added novelty” means a mercury-added product intended mainly for personal or household enjoyment or adornment. Mercury-added novelties include items intended for use as practical jokes, figurines, adornments, toys, games, cards, ornaments, yard statues and figures, candles, jewelry, holiday decorations, items of apparel (including footwear), and similar products.
(10) “Mercury-added product” means a product, a commodity, a chemical, a product with one or more components, or a product that cannot function without the use of that component, that contains mercury or a mercury compound intentionally added to the product, commodity, chemical, or component in order to provide a specific characteristic, appearance, or quality, or to perform a specific function, or for any other reason. These products include formulated mercury-added products and fabricated mercury-added products.
(11) “Mercury fever thermometer” means a mercury-added product that is used for measuring body temperature. This does not include a fever thermometer with a mercury-added button cell battery.
(12) “Motor vehicle” means a vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine or an electric motor, such as an automobile, van, truck, motorized construction equipment, motorized recreational vehicle, motorcycle, and forklift.
§ 7103. MULTISTATE CLEARINGHOUSE
The agency is authorized to participate in the establishment and implementation of a regional, multistate clearinghouse to assist in carrying out the requirements of this chapter and to coordinate state review of manufacturer notification under section 7104 of this title, applications for alternative product labeling under section 7106 of this title, exemption requests from product sale restrictions under section 7105 of this title, education and outreach activities, and to coordinate any other activities related to the administration of this chapter. Notwithstanding 1 V.S.A. § 317, the agency may provide the multistate clearinghouse with product information submitted to the department under section 7104 of this title, and the agency and the multistate clearinghouse may compile or publish analyses or summaries of such information, provided the analyses or summaries do not identify any manufacturer or reveal any confidential information.
§ 7104. NOTIFICATION
(a) Effective July 1, 2006, no mercury-added product may be offered for final sale, sold at a final sale, or distributed in Vermont, unless the manufacturer or its designated industrial trade group gives prior notification in writing to the agency or the multistate clearinghouse described in 7103 of this chapter, as provided in this section. This notification, in a form approved by the agency, at a minimum shall include:
(1) A brief description of the product or category of products to be offered for sale or distributed;
(2) The purpose for which mercury is used in each individual product or category of products;
(3) The amount of mercury in each unit of the product or product component, reported as an exact number, as an average per product or per component with an upper or lower limit, or as falling within a range approved by the agency;
(4) The name and address of the manufacturer, or manufacturers, and the name, address, and phone number of a contact person for the manufacturer; and
(5) The total amount of mercury in all units of the product or product components sold in the United States during the most recent calendar year for which sales figures are available, reported either for the units or components sold by the manufacturer or as aggregated by a manufacturer trade association for all units of the product or components made by the industry.
(b) With the approval of the agency or multistate clearinghouse, the manufacturer may supply the information required in this section for a product category rather than an individual product. The manufacturer or its designated industrial trade group shall revise the information in the notification whenever there is a significant change in the information or when requested by the agency or the multistate clearinghouse. The information required under subdivision (a)(5) of this section, must be updated and provided to the agency or multistate clearinghouse every three years on a date established through the multistate clearinghouse.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a)(3) of this section, the manufacturer of a product containing one or more mercury-added components is not required to include information on the amount of mercury in the component in the notice to the agency or multistate clearinghouse, if the component manufacturer has provided that information to the agency or clearinghouse and the manufacturer of the product that contains the component identifies the component and component manufacturer in the notice.
(d) The requirements of this section do not apply to drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration or to any mercury-added product for which federal law governs notice in a manner that preempts state authority.
(e) Public disclosure of business information submitted to the agency pursuant to this section shall be governed by the requirements of 1 V.S.A. §317. Notwithstanding the provisions of 1 V.S.A. §317, the agency may provide the multistate clearinghouse with copies of that information, and the agency, in consultation with the clearinghouse, may compile or publish analyses or summaries of that information, provided the analyses or summaries do not identify any manufacturer or reveal any confidential information.
§ 7105. RESTRICTIONS ON THE SALEAND USEOF CERTAIN MERCURYADDED PRODUCTS
(a) Novelties. After July 1, 2006, no mercury-added novelty may be offered for final sale, sold at a final sale, or distributed in Vermont. This ban on sale or distribution shall not apply to a novelty incorporating one or more mercuryadded lamps as its only mercury-added component or components. Before July 1, 2011, this ban on sale or distribution shall not apply to a novelty incorporating one or more mercury-added button cell batteries as its only mercury-added component or components. Manufacturers that produce and sell mercury-added novelties must notify retailers about the provisions of this product ban and how to return the remaining inventory to the manufacturer.
(b) Thermometers and thermostats. After July 1, 2006, no mercury fever thermometer or mercury-containing thermostat for the control of space heating or cooling may be offered for final sale, sold at a final sale, or distributed in Vermont.
(c) Dairy manometers. After January 1, 2006, no mercury dairy manometer may be offered for final sale, sold at a final sale, or distributed in Vermont, with the exception of a mercury dairy manometer purchased by a licensed dairy service provider to calibrate customers’ manometers and other milking equipment. The agency of agriculture, food and markets will notify dairy service providers of this product ban, and how to dispose properly of remaining inventory. The Vermont agency of agriculture, food and markets and Vermont solid waste districts and municipalities will continue their education, outreach, and assistance programs for dairy farms, focusing on the hazards of mercury, and encouraging dairy farmers to replace their mercurycontaining manometers with mercury-free alternatives in an effort to help further reduce mercury in the environment.
(d) Elemental mercury.
(1) Effective July 1, 2006, no person may sell or provide elemental mercury to another person in Vermont, except for manufacturing or recycling or disposal purposes, without providing a “material safety data sheet,” as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 11049, and requiring the purchaser or recipient to sign a statement that the purchaser:
(A) Will use the mercury only for medical or research purposes;
(B) Understands that mercury is toxic, and the purchaser will store and use it appropriately so that no person is exposed to the mercury; and
(C) Will not place the mercury in solid waste for disposal or in a wastewater treatment and disposal system, and will not allow anyone under the purchaser’s control to place or cause mercury to be placed in such a location.
(2) Effective July 1, 2006, no person may purchase elemental mercury from someone outside the state of Vermont for use in Vermont without a certified statement from the purchaser provided to the agency, certifying that the conditions specified in subdivision (1) of this subsection, if applicable, have been met. These conditions shall not apply to the sale or provision of elemental mercury for manufacturing, recycling, or disposal purposes.
(e) Instruments and measuring devices.
(1) Effective January 1, 2007, none of the following mercury-added products may be offered for final sale, sold at a final sale, or distributed in Vermont:
(A) A barometer;
(B) An esophageal dilator, bougie tube, or gastrointestinal tube;
(C) A flow meter;
(D) A hydrometer;
(E) A hygrometer or psychrometer;
(F) A manometer other than a manometer prohibited from sale under subsection (c) of this section;
(G) A pyrometer;
(H) A sphygmomanometer;
(I) A thermometer that contains elemental mercury, other than a mercury fever thermometer.
(J) A mercury-added neon type sign or lamp.
(2) This prohibition does not apply to the sale of a mercury-added product listed in subdivisions (1)(A) – (J) of this subsection if use of the product is a federal requirement, or if the only mercury-added component of the product is a button cell battery. This prohibition does not apply to the sale of mercury-added lamps when used in semiconductor manufacturing and other manufacturing operations.