Ban Water Beads Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6468 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6468

To provide that certain water beads products shall be considered banned 
hazardous products under section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2023

  Mr. Pallone (for himself, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, and Ms. Pettersen) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide that certain water beads products shall be considered banned 
hazardous products under section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ban Water Beads Act''.

SEC. 2. CERTAIN WATER BEADS PRODUCTS CONSIDERED BANNED HAZARDOUS 
              PRODUCTS.

    (a) In General.--On and after the date that is 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, a water beads product, without 
regard to the date of manufacture or importation, shall be considered a 
banned hazardous product under section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety 
Act (15 U.S.C. 2057).
    (b) Additional Regulations.--If the Consumer Product Safety 
Commission determines such action would eliminate or adequately reduce 
a risk of injury, the Commission may promulgate, under section 553 of 
title 5, United States Code, regulations to carry out 1 or more of the 
following:
            (1) With respect to paragraph (1) of subsection (c) of this 
        section, adding to the list of materials that compose a water 
        beads product.
            (2) With respect to paragraph (2) of such subsection, 
        adding to the list of products that are defined as water beads 
        products.
            (3) With respect to paragraph (3) of such subsection, 
        adding to the list of product categories applicable to water 
        beads products.
    (c) Water Beads Product Defined.--In this section, the term ``water 
beads product'' means a consumer product that--
            (1) is composed, in whole or in part, of water-absorbing 
        superabsorbent polymers, such as polyacrylamides and 
        polyacrylates;
            (2) at the point of sale to a consumer, contains at least 1 
        individual bead that can--
                    (A) fit entirely within the cylinder described in 
                section 1501.4 of title 16, Code of Federal 
                Regulations; and
                    (B) through water absorption, expand to a size of 
                at least 3 millimeters (in 1 or more dimensions); and
            (3) is designed, intended, or marketed as--
                    (A) a toy (as such term is defined in section 
                3.1.91 of ASTM F963-17 (Standard Consumer Safety 
                Specification for Toy Safety), or any successor to such 
                document);
                    (B) educational material; or
                    (C) art material or art material product (as such 
                term is defined in section 23(b)(1) of the Federal 
                Hazardous Substances Act (15 U.S.C. 1277(b)(1))).
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