The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The program maintained by the United States Food and Drug Administration to regulate the amount of lead and cadmium released from ceramic, metal, and other dishware and tableware is inadequate to protect Californians from the importation and sale of unsafe tableware in this state.
(b) Recent inspection and sampling conducted by local and state health departments in California has demonstrated that significant amounts of unsafe tableware are in fact being imported and sold in California.
(c) The standards established by the federal government for acceptable lead and cadmium release are likely inadequate to fully protect public health and may be inconsistent with requirements that already exist in California law governing exposure to lead and cadmium.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the department, first, establish its own program to protect the public from unsafe tableware and, second, develop standards for lead and cadmium release from tableware that are consistent with existing state law.
(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 1996.)