FEDERAL HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES ACT

NOTE. See section 30 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (P.L. 92-573 (p. 289) which transferred the functions of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act and the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970 to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and transferred the functions of that Secretary, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Federal Trade Commission under the Flammable Fabrics Act to that Commission.

FEDERAL HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES ACT

SHORT TITLE

SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Federal Hazardous Substances Act".

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 2. For the purposes of this Act

(a) The term "territory" means any territory or pos- 15 U.S.C. 1261 session of the United States, including the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico but excluding the Canal Zone.

(b) The term "interstate commerce" means (1) commerce between any State or territory and any place outside thereof, and (2) commerce within the District of Columbia or within any territory not organized with a legislative body.

(c) The term "Department" means the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

(d) The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

(e) The term "person" includes an individual, partnership, corporation, and association.

(f) The term "hazardous substance" means:

1. (A) Any substance or mixture of substances which (i) is toxic, (ii) is corrosive, (iii) is an irritant, (iv) is a strong sensitizer, (v) is flammable or combustible, or (vi) generates pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means, if such substance or mixture of substances may cause substantial personal injury or substantial illness during or as a proximate result of any customary or reasonably foreseeable handling or use, including reasonably foreseeable ingestion by children.

(B) Any substances which the Secretary by regulation finds, pursuant to the provisions of section 3(a), meet the requirements of subparagraph 1(A) of this paragraph.

(C) Any radioactive substance, if, with respect to such substance as used in a particular class of article or as packaged, the Secretary determines by regulation that the substance is sufficiently hazardous to require labeling in accordance with this Act in order to protect the public health.

(D) Any toy or other article intended for use by children which the Secretary by regulation determines, in accordance with section 3(e) of this Act, presents an electrical, mechanical, or thermal hazard.

2. The term "hazardous substance" shall not apply to pesticides subject to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, nor to foods, drugs, and cosmetics subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, nor to substances intended for use as fuels when stored in containers and used in the heating, cooking, or refrigeration system of a house, but such term shall apply to any article which is not itself a pesticide within the meaning of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act but which is a hazardous substance within the meaning of subparagraph 1 of this paragraph by reason of bearing or containing such an economic poison.

3. The term "hazardous substance" shall not include any source material, special nuclear material, or byproduct material as defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and regulations issued pursuant thereto by the Atomic Energy Commission. (g) The term "toxic" shall apply to any substance (other than a radioactive substance) which has the capacity to produce personal injury or illness to man through ingestion, inhalation, or absorption through any body surface.

(h) (1) The term "highly toxic" means any substance which falls within any of the following categories: (a) Produces death within fourteen days in half or more than half of a group of ten or more laboratory white rats each weighing between two hundred and three hundred grams, at a single dose of fifty milligrams or less per kilogram of body weight, when orally administered; or (b) produces death within fourteen days in half or more than half of a group of ten or more laboratory white rats each weighing between two hundred and three hundred grams, when inhaled continuously for a period of one hour or less at an atmospheric concentration of two hundred parts per million by volume or less of gas or vapor or two milligrams per liter by volume or less of mist or dust, provided such concentration is likely to be encountered by man when the substance is used in any reasonably foreseeable manner; or (c) produces death within fourteen days in half or more than half of a group of ten or more rabbits tested in a dosage of two hundred milligrams or less per kilogram of body weight, when administered by continuous contact with the bare skin. for twenty-four hours or less.

(2) If the Secretary finds that available data on human experience with any substance indicate results differ