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A law signed Thursday by Gov. Josh Shapiro will end the use of a potentially harmful chemical in IV lines in hospitals and ban the use of so-called forever chemicals in firefighting foam. Another new law bans the sale of cosmetics tested on dogs and cats.
The measures were among nearly 60 bills signed into law by Shapiro Thursday, a day after lawmakers left the Capitol at the conclusion of the fall legislative session.
Both chambers have only a handful of lame duck session days remaining after the midterm elections. Other measures signed by Shapiro include a bell-to-bell ban on cellphone use in schools and a measure allowing fire companies to offer an unlimited number of online raffles.
Act 98 will make Pennsylvania the fourth state to order hospitals to use alternatives to DEHP (di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate), a chemical used to soften plastics that can leach into IV fluids. Experts say the chemical has been linked to breast, liver, lung and testicular cancer.
"You go to the doctor to get better, not get sicker," Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 804 (now Act 98), said in a statement after the Senate approved the legislation in March. "Study after study have shown the toxicity of these additives -- so I was shocked to learn how common they are in medical settings."
Massachusetts, California and North Carolina -- have implemented similar bans on the use of DEHP. All three states are banning the use of DEHP in IV containers beginning in 2030 and in IV lines in 2035. Act 98 sets the same effective dates in Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers in the House amended SB 804 to include a provision barring the use of PFAS, the so-called forever chemical most strongly linked to kidney and testicular cancer.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, lawmakers in 39 states introduced more than 300 PFAS-related bills last year. Sixteen states enacted 32 bills limiting the use of PFAS in consumer goods, firefighting foam and personal protective equipment.
The state House passed bans on the use of PFAS in both firefighting foam and a number of consumer products, including cosmetics, dental floss, infant and children's products and menstrual products. The ban on PFAS in firefighting foam was unanimously approved by the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee in April but did not come up for a floor vote.
Beagle Bill
Act 92, formerly Senate Bill 381, bars the sale of cosmetics tested on companion pets beginning in April.
In addition to banning the sale of cosmetics tested on companion animals, Senate Bill 381 would mandate that dogs and cats used in lab testing be put up for adoption once they are no longer being used by the labs. The legislation also sets limits on animal-testing for research using state tax dollars and requires that labs receiving state funds comply with animal cruelty protections. Labs found to have violated those rules risk being blacklisted from state dollars for a year.
The legislation, dubbed the Beagle Bill by lawmakers, was inspired by a 2022 case in which dozens of beagles were rescued from a Virginia lab whose operators were charged with violating federal animal welfare laws.
Animal rights groups say there are more than a dozen animal testing labs in Pennsylvania that use dogs and cats for experiments to assess the effects of drugs, pesticides, chemicals and other products. More than 3,000 dogs and cats in Pennsylvania were subjected to testing in research facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.