(a) In consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Air Resources Board, the director shall evaluate the health effects of pesticides that may be or are emitted into the ambient air of California and that may be determined to be a toxic air contaminant that poses a present or potential hazard to human health. Upon request of the State Air Resources Board, the director shall include a pesticide for evaluation.
(b) The director shall complete the evaluation of a pesticide within 90 days after receiving the scientific data specified in subdivision (c) from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Air Resources Board. The director may extend the 90-day deadline for a period not to exceed 30 days if the director transmits to the Assembly Committee on Rules and the Senate Committee on Rules, for transmittal to the appropriate standing, select, or joint committee of the Legislature, a statement of reasons for extension of the deadline.
(c) In conducting this evaluation, the director shall consider all available scientific data, including, but not limited to, relevant data provided by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Department of Industrial Relations, international and federal health agencies, private industry, academic researchers, and public health and environmental organizations. At the request of the director, the State Air Resources Board shall document the level of airborne emissions and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment shall provide an assessment of related health effects of pesticides that may be determined to pose a present or potential hazard and each agency shall provide technical assistance to the department as it conducts its evaluation.
(d) The director may request, and any person shall provide, information on any substance that is or may be under evaluation and that is manufactured, distributed, or used by the person to whom the request is made, in order to carry out the director’s responsibilities pursuant to this chapter. Any person providing information pursuant to this subdivision shall identify, at the request of the director, that portion of the information submitted to the department that is a trade secret and, upon the request of the director, shall provide documentation to support the claim of the trade secret. Information supplied that is a trade secret, as specified in Section 7924.510 of the Government Code, and that is so marked at the time of submission shall not be released to the public by the director, except in accordance with Section 1060 of the Evidence Code and Section 21160 of the Public Resources Code.
(e) The director shall give priority to the evaluation and regulation of substances based on factors related to the risk of harm to public health, amount or potential amount of emissions, manner of usage of the pesticide in California, persistence in the atmosphere, and ambient concentrations in the community.
(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 122. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Sec. 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.)