The Legislature finds and declares that there exists a significant danger to the public health and safety from exposure to art or craft material that contains toxic chemicals. This health risk threatens not only professional artists and craftspersons, but art teachers, students at every educational level, hobbyists, and children. Toxic substances may be employed during the course and scope of creating art or craft objects of all varieties.

The Legislature additionally finds and declares that present labeling of ingredients and hazards of art or craft material is insufficient to adequately protect the consumers of this state from chronic adverse health effects. Because many persons do not know what toxic chemical substances they work with, proper precautionary actions cannot be taken. Disclosure of toxic ingredients, their possible adverse effects on health, and instructions for safe handling, will substantially minimize unnecessary exposure to excessive risk.

Additionally, the Legislature finds and declares that it is consistent to impose upon those who manufacture, repackage, distribute, and sell art or craft material a duty to convey to consumers information about the potential health hazards of the products they manufacture.

Therefore, the Legislature intends by this article to ensure that consumers be provided information concerning the nature of the toxic substances with which they are working and the known and suspected health hazards of these substances, and to ensure the uniformity of labeling standards, so that materials with similar hazards also have essentially similar labels.

(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 1996.)