Bill Text: CA AB127 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

---

Bill Title: Fire safety: fire retardants: building insulation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Passed) 2013-10-05 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 579, Statutes of 2013. [AB127 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB127-Amended.html

---

BILL NUMBER: AB 127	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 22, 2013
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 1, 2013
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 21, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Skinner
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Ammiano, Rendon, Stone, and Williams)

                        JANUARY 14, 2013

   An act to add Section  18934.6   13108.1
 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to fire safety.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 127, as amended, Skinner. Fire safety: fire retardants:
building insulation.
   Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission to adopt regulations pertaining to urea
formaldehyde foam insulation materials that are reasonably necessary
to protect the public health and safety. Existing law provides that
these regulations may include prohibition of the manufacture, sale,
or installation of this insulation. Existing law also authorizes the
Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and
Thermal Insulation to establish by regulation insulation material
standards governing the quality of all insulation material sold or
installed in the state.
   The California Building Standards Law requires all state agencies
that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the
building standard to the California Building Standards Commission
for approval or adoption. Existing law requires the commission to
receive proposed building standards from state agencies for
consideration in an 18-month code adoption cycle. Existing law
requires the commission to adopt, approve, codify, update, and
publish green building standards applicable to a particular
occupancy, if no state agency has the authority or expertise to
propose green building standards for those occupancies.
   This bill would state that the Legislature finds and declares that
it is in the best interest of the state to reduce the use of flame
retardant chemicals from building insulation, while preserving
building fire safety and encouraging healthy building practices. The
bill would require the  commission to adopt, approve, codify,
and publish, during its next code adoption cycle,  
State Fire Marshal, in   consultation with the Bureau of
Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and Thermal
Insulation, to, by January 1, 2015, propose for adoption by the
commission  updated flammability standards that accomplish
certain things, including maintaining overall building fire safety
while giving full consideration to the long-term human and ecological
health impacts associated with chemical flame retardants.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) To improve energy efficiency and to reduce global climate
change, the use of plastic insulation materials, such as polystyrene,
polyisocyanurate, and polyurethane, is increasing in buildings and
especially in green buildings.
   (b) In the United States, flammability requirements for plastic
foam insulations and other building materials are incorporated into
building codes and fire regulations for building materials. To meet
these requirements, plastic insulation materials have flame-retardant
chemicals added to them, usually as halogenated organic compounds
with chlorine or bromine bonded to carbon.
   (c) Studies have shown that these halogenated organic compounds
may be associated with neurological and developmental toxicity and
endocrine disruption, and are possible carcinogens.
   (d) Flame retardants, whose primary use is in building insulation,
are found at increasing levels in household dust, human bodily
fluids, and the environment.
   (e) Code provisions regulating plastic foam insulations in
buildings were first introduced in the early 1960s. Those code
provisions do not specify that chemicals be added to foam plastic
insulation, but in practice organohalogen flame-retardant compounds
are commonly added to meet test requirements.
   (f) Despite these requirements, in the 1970s, serious fires
occurred from exposed foam plastic insulation. To address this issue,
the 1976 Uniform Building Code required plastic foam insulation to
be protected by a thermal barrier, usually as, or in the form of,
0.5-inch-thick gypsum wallboard.
   (g) Although, in most circumstances, the thermal barrier
regulations have been deemed to be sufficient for fire safety,
chemical flame retardants are still also required. Virtually all
foam-plastic insulation materials in the United States today,
including extruded and expanded polystyrene, polyisocyanurate, and
spray polyurethane foam, are treated with halogenated flame
retardants.
   (h) Many flame retardants are known to pose serious health and
environmental hazards and are being banned or eliminated from use in
many parts of the world.
   (i) Comprehensive investigations by fire-safety experts cast into
doubt the contention that the addition of flame retardants, at the
concentrations typically used in foam insulation, improves fire
safety.
   (j) The presence of flame retardants does not prevent foam plastic
from burning and upon combustion can significantly increase
hazardous products like smoke, soot, carbon monoxide, and potentially
carcinogenic dioxins.
   (k) The Steiner Tunnel Test (ASTM E-84), the most common test
procedure used to determine flammability, flame spread, and smoke
developed, produces misleading results when applied to foam plastic
insulation.
   (l) Flame retardants add to the cost of foam insulation materials
while not appreciably enhancing fire safety. Thermal barriers, such
as drywall, provide adequate protection against fire and fire-spread
than flame retardants.
   (m) The International Code Council is considering adopting
exemptions to the Steiner Tunnel flame spread and smoke developed
requirements for foam plastics in the International Residential Code
where adequate thermal barriers, such as 0.5-inch-thick gypsum
wallboard or one-inch thick masonry or concrete, are present.
  SEC. 2.  Section  18934.6   13108.1  is
added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
    18934.6.   13108.1.   (a) The
Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best interest of the
state to reduce the use of flame retardant chemicals in building
insulation, while preserving building fire safety and encouraging
healthy building practices.
   (b)  The commission shall adopt, approve, codify, and
publish, during its next code adoption cycle,   The
State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Bureau of Electronic and
Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and Thermal Insulation, shall,
by January 1, 2015, propose for adoption by the commission 
updated flammability standards that accomplish both of the following:

   (1) Maintain overall building fire safety while giving full
consideration to the long-term human and ecological health impacts
associated with chemical flame retardants.
   (2) Ensure that there is adequate protection from fires that
travel between walls and into confined areas, including crawl spaces
and attics, for occupants of the building and any firefighters who
may be in the building during a fire.