Media Release: August 27, 2004
Contact: Leticia Ayala, (619) 235-0281

Vargas kills bill to protect children’s health
Environmental Health Coalition calls on community to hold
State Legislature accountable

For the second time this legislative session, State Assemblymember Juan Vargas has prevented passage of legislation to “get the lead out” of candy. And the irony is, he was the original author of the bill sponsored by Environmental Health Coalition. After easily passing the Assembly, Vargas allowed his original bill to die in the Senate Health Committee without putting up a fight. When the bill was revived by his fellow Assembly Members Marco Antonio Firebaugh, John Longville and Lou Correra, who succeeded in getting it passed by the Senate, Vargas pulled the rug out from under them. He removed his name from the bill and convinced fellow legislators not to take action.

“I can’t explain Mr. Vargas’s actions. The truth of the matter is that this is about protecting children’s health. Assembly Member Vargas has ensured that lead-contaminated candy will stay on store shelves. He must be held accountable,” stated Leticia Ayala, Director of Environmental Health Coalition’s Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning. “On behalf of the children of the State of California, I am saddened and outraged.”

Candy contaminated with lead presents an unacceptable health risk to children. Among other things, exposure to lead causes developmental harm in children, including low IQ and behavioral problems.

In 2001, EHC began collecting Mexican candies from a variety of local stores in San Diego, sending them to the California Department of Health Services for testing and having them tested by independent laboratories. Nearly 50% of candies tested contained lead; the average level was .77 ppm, with a high of 1.4 ppm. Assembly Member Vargas asserted that a threshold level of .2 ppm was not protective enough however the evidence does not support that assertion at all. Similar results were found in a more extensive study conducted by the Orange County Register.

“Assemblymember Vargas and EHC started this struggle together and we are extremely disappointed that he elected to turn his back on the community,” said Diane Takvorian, Executive Director of EHC. “It appears that this bill was doomed by politics, not by what is right to do for our children. Hundreds of parents and community residents expressed their support and demanded that their children’s health be protected but their voices were ignored, not only by Assembly Member Vargas, but also by the legislators they trust to protect them.”

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