The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a)  That public health, safety, and welfare may be endangered by the emission into the ambient air of substances which are determined to be carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic, or otherwise toxic or injurious to humans.

(b)  That persons residing in California may be exposed to a multiplicity of toxic air contaminants from numerous sources which may act cumulatively to produce adverse effects, and that this phenomenon should be taken into account when evaluating the health effects of individual compounds.

(c)  That it is the public policy of the state that emissions of toxic air contaminants should be controlled to levels which prevent harm to the public health.

(d)  That the identification and regulation of toxic air contaminants should utilize the best available scientific evidence gathered from the public, private industry, the scientific community, and federal, state, and local agencies, and that the scientific research on which decisions related to health effects are based should be reviewed by a scientific review panel and members of the public.

(e)  That, while absolute and undisputed scientific evidence may not be available to determine the exact nature and extent of risk from toxic air contaminants, it is necessary to take action to protect public health.

(f)  That the state board has adopted regulations regarding the identification and control of toxic air contaminants, but that the statutory authority of the state board, the relationship of its proposed program to the activities of other agencies, and the role of scientific and public review of the regulations should be clarified by the Legislature.

(g)  That the Department of Food and Agriculture has jurisdiction over pesticides to protect the public from environmentally harmful pesticides by regulating the registration and uses of pesticides.

(h)  That while there is a statewide program to control levels of air contaminants subject to state and national ambient air quality standards, there is no specific statutory framework in this division for the evaluation and control of substances which may be toxic air contaminants.

(i)  That the purpose of this chapter is to create a program which specifically addresses the evaluation and control of substances which may be toxic air contaminants and which complements existing authority to establish, achieve, and maintain ambient air quality standards.

(j)  That this chapter is limited to toxic air contaminants and nothing in the chapter is to be construed as expanding or limiting the authority of any agency or district concerning pesticides which are not identified as toxic air contaminants.

(k)  That a statewide program to control toxic air contaminants is necessary and desirable in order to provide technical and scientific assistance to the districts, to achieve the earliest practicable control of toxic air contaminants, to promote the development and use of advanced control technologies and alternative processes and materials, to identify the toxic air contaminants of concern and determine the priorities of their control, and to minimize inconsistencies in protecting the public health in various areas of the state.

(Added by Stats. 1983, Ch. 1047, Sec. 1.)