Safer Consumer Products

We are working toward safer California households, workplaces, and products.

About Safer Consumer Products

Our mission at the California Safer Consumer Products (SCP) Program is to advance the design, development, and use of products that are chemically safer for people and the environment.

The SCP Program was founded in October 2013 through the adoption of the SCP Regulations. We recently celebrated our first decade of accomplishments.

Consumer product chemicals impact us all

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Every day Californians interact with dozens of consumer products that contain dozens of chemicals each. We apply these chemicals to our skin, wear them on our bodies, breathe them in, and ingest them through dust, food, and water.

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Many of these chemicals did not undergo safety testing prior to being used. Some are now known to cause adverse impacts to human health or the environment, yet their use continues.

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When hazardous chemicals are banned or voluntarily removed from the market, they may be replaced with chemicals that are similar but less well studied. Sometimes these replacement chemicals turn out to be similarly harmful to human health or the environment, a situation known as a “regrettable substitution.”

SCP inspires a shift to safer chemistries

In 2008 California took a groundbreaking step towards reducing the use of hazardous chemicals and accelerating the quest for safer products by enacting the Green Chemistry Law. This law authorizes DTSC to develop and implement the SCP Regulations.

The SCP approach is highly collaborative and science-driven, and creates business opportunities in the green chemistry and safer consumer products industries. We envision a future where all Californians can have peace of mind that the consumer products we interact with every day are free of harmful chemicals and safe for us and our environment.

Safer Consumer Products Timeline as of November 2024

The Safer Consumer Products (SCP) Timeline presents a glimpse of our activities under the current Priority Product Work Plan. It is intended to make the breadth and depth of our work visible to the public, to inform the public of progress on current projects, and to increase opportunities for positive stakeholder engagement. The Timeline is for informational purposes only, and it is not intended to be a comprehensive view of all of our work.

We update the Timeline quarterly. Single-day events (e.g., issuance of notices, meetings, workshops) are typically shown as diamonds but may be shown as bars indicating ranges of likely dates. Activities, milestones, and associated dates are subject to change. Note that some activities may extend beyond (before or after) the 15-month window displayed in the Timeline.

For regulatory deadlines and information about comment periods, events, workshops, etc., please consult CalSAFER.

View SCP Timeline