Governor Newsom has signed several bills into law, including a sweeping mandate requiring large businesses to disclose a wide range of planet-warming emissions. Newsom has until Oct. 14 to act on legislation that lawmakers sent to his desk.
California on Saturday became the first state to ban four chemicals used in well-known candies and other foods and drinks because of their link to certain health problems.
Newsom signed a law banning the red dye No. 3 chemical used as food coloring for products like Peeps, the marshmallow treat most associated with Easter. The chemical has been linked to cancer and has been banned from makeup for more than 30 years.
The law also bans brominated vegetable oil, which is used in some store brand sodas, and potassium bromate and propylparaben, two chemicals used in baked goods.
Newsom said in a signing statement that the additives addressed in the bill are already banned in various other countries. All four chemicals are already banned in foods in the European Union.
“Signing this into law is a positive step forward on these four food additives until the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews and establishes national updated safety levels for these additives,” Newsom’s statement said.
Just Born Inc., the company that makes Peeps, has said it has been looking for other dye options for its products.
The bill was authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from Los Angeles.
“The Governor’s signature today represents a huge step forward in our effort to protect children and families in California from dangerous and toxic chemicals in our food supply,” Gabriel said in a statement Saturday.
The law doesn’t take effect until 2027, which Newsom said should give companies plenty of time to adapt to the new rules.
There doesn’t seem to be a substance on Earth that California cannot link to cancer.
Maybe, just maybe, that is because so many manmade chemicals are cancer causing, and also why we are seeing such tragidies like dramaticly rising rates of rising cancer in young people.
Maybe more states should be like California. I mean, unless you want to be lied to?
It’s a meme
The reason why this exists is California Prop 65, which required that companies get their products tested for possible carcinogens or have a label that states that they could cause cancer. Companies generally responded by just foregoing the tests and accepting the labels, making them functionally worthless (since the vast majority of products with the prop 65 warning are perfectly fine, just untested).