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Committee advances Safer Soap Act amid split testimony over science and federal preemption
Summary
The Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee voted to advance AB 916, the Safer Soap Act by Assemblymember Lee, which would ban over‑the‑counter hand soaps and body washes containing three named antimicrobial ingredients.
The Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee voted to advance AB 916, the "Safer Soap Act," authored by Assemblymember Lee. The bill would prohibit the sale of over‑the‑counter (consumer) hand soaps and body washes that contain the three named antimicrobial ingredients benzalkonium chloride (BAC), benzethonium chloride (BZT) and chloroxylenol (PCMX). The committee approved the measure and referred it to the Committee on Health.
Proponents, including Rebecca Fuoco of the Green Science Policy Institute and Nora Angeles of Children Now, said federal agencies have not demonstrated added consumer health benefits from these antimicrobials in home settings and identified possible health and environmental concerns. Fuoco cited peer‑reviewed research, saying quaternary ammonium compounds and related ingredients are persistent and have been associated in some studies with reproductive, respiratory…
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