Chemicals of High Concern List Under Toxic Free Kids Act

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has published a list of almost 1,800 chemicals, and materials, such as diesel engine exhaust, soots, tars, and mineral oils, it has determined to be Chemicals of High Concern.

The Minnesota Toxic Free Kids Act of 2009 required that the MDH, after consultation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), generate a list of Chemicals of High Concern by July 1, 2010. The chemicals on the list must meet these criteria identified in Minn. Stat. 2009 116.9401:

"Chemical of high concern" means a chemical identified on the basis of credible
scientific evidence by a state, federal, or international agency as being known or suspected with a high degree of probability to:

• harm the normal development of a fetus or child or cause other developmental
  toxicity;
• cause cancer, genetic damage, or reproductive harm;
• disrupt the endocrine or hormone system;
• damage the nervous system, immune system, or organs, or cause other systemic toxicity;
• be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or
• be very persistent and very bioaccumulative
  

The law also instructed MDH to “consider chemicals listed as a suspected carcinogen, reproductive or developmental toxicant, or as being persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, or very persistent and very bioaccumulative by a state, federal, or international agency. These agencies included the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Department of Ecology, US Department of Health, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the United Nation's World Health Organization, and European Parliament Annex XIV concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)

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