The House Business Affairs & Labor Committee passed HB 26-1135, a hair product chemical warning label bill, 11-1, and spent the bulk of the hearing taking extensive testimony and debating amendments to HB 26-1054, the Colorado Worker Safety Act, which would establish a state-level general duty for employers to keep workers safe in response to federal OSHA rollbacks — with the bill's final vote not recorded before the transcript ended.
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Cole West of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce argued the bill 'will create more problems than it solves' and is 'impliedly preempted by federal law,' warning that parallel state and federal proceedings on the same fatality 'could have two entirely different outcomes on the same set of facts.' Adam Ekman of the Colorado Mining Association stated flatly 'Absolutely. I think it's preempted by the Mine Act.' Manny Santa Stephen of CDLE argued 'federal law limits states from regulating occupational safety for private employers unless they have an approved state plan.' Valerie Collins of Towards Justice countered: 'I can unequivocally say that this bill does not implicate preemption and does not foster competing or confusing mystery standards that nobody knows what they will be,' citing 29 CFR 1910.2F.
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“Kelly Sloan, Jeff Thomasgaard, Trisha McCready, Ali Spray and Cole West. Okay, which one? All right, who wants to begin? Why don't we start on this end? Are we on? There we go. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Manny Santa Stephen. I'm the director of Government affairs and Policy for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The department is”
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Sign in to subscribeThank you all for waiting. We've had some late morning meetings, but here we are. Business affairs and labor will come to order. Ms. Haroja, please call the roll. Representative Bradley. Excused. Brooks. Present. English. Here. Kelty. Here. Leader. Present. Mabry. Here. Marshall. Here. Morrow. Here. Richardson. Here. Sukla. Here. Zai. Here. Camacho. Excused. Madam Chair. Present. Okay, it looks like our bill sponsors are in the room. We're going to get started. Who wants to go first? Representative English thank you, Madam Chair and committee. We are presenting House Bill 26:1135 because this is, at its core, a woman's health and consumer protection issue grounded in documented public health concerns. Women, girls and salon professionals use hair products regularly and repeatedly over the course of years, often beginning in childhood. That level of long term exposure matters, especially when credible research has already identified the presence of potential harmful and in some cases carcinogenic chemicals in certain hair products and synthetic hair materials. For example, NIH funded research has found that frequent use of chemical hair straighteners is associated with a higher risk of uterine cancer. Other scientific and consumer testing analyses have detected chemicals such as benzene, methylene…
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