After January 1, 1990, no person shall sell, offer for sale, or distribute for sale in the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Stark, Cuyahoga, Summit, Medina, Lorain, Ashland, Richland, Huron, Erie, Crawford, Marion, Wyandot, Seneca, Sandusky, Ottawa, Lucas, Wood, Hancock, Hardin, Fulton, Henry, Putnam, Allen, Auglaize, Shelby, Mercer, Van Wert, Paulding, Defiance, and Williams, a household laundry detergent containing phosphorus in any form in excess of one-half per cent by weight expressed as elemental phosphorus.

This section does not apply to:

(A) A cleanser, rinsing aid, sanitizing agent, or detergent intended primarily for use in an automatic or machine dishwasher;

(B) An industrial or commercial conversion coating agent, corrosion remover, paint remover, rust inhibitor, metal brightener, etchant, or other surface conditioner;

(C) A solvent cleaner or other similar product not normally used with water;

(D) A disinfectant, detergent, or sanitizer used in institutions, hospitals, veterinary hospitals or clinics, nursing homes, or other health care facilities or by commercial laundries that provide laundry services for those institutions and facilities or for other commercial establishments;

(E) A compound or product used in the manufacture or processing of foods or food products, including those used in dairy, beverage, egg, fish, poultry, meat, fruit, or vegetable processing facilities;

(F) A product intended primarily for personal use, including, but not limited to, bathing soaps, dentifrices, shampoos, cleansing creams, toothpastes, or other products for the care of the human body;

(G) A product subject to registration or control under federal or state law governing foods, drugs, cosmetics, insecticides, fungicides, or rodenticides;

(H) A product normally not used with water, such as a cleanser for windows, ovens, or other hard surfaces;

(I) A water softening chemical, anti-scale chemical, or corrosion inhibitor intended for use in circulatory systems, such as boilers, air conditioners, cooling towers, or hot water heating systems;

(J) A product used as a cleanser in the washing of milking or milk storage equipment normally used in the production of milk for market;

(K) A compound or product used for cleaning in transportation, commercial, or industrial activities;

(L) Retail sales or offers for sale from a retailer's inventory of a product otherwise covered by this section that remains at the end of the business day on December 31, 1989, if the retailer's inventory of the product during December, 1989, does not exceed the retailer's average monthly inventory during the previous twelve months.

A person who unknowingly sells, offers for sale, or distributes for sale a household laundry detergent in violation of this section is not subject to the imposition of a civil penalty under section 6111.09 of the Revised Code for that violation if the sale, offer for sale, or distribution for sale occurred because of the inadvertent or unintentional delivery of the detergent to a business location in a county where such sale, offer for sale, or distribution for sale is prohibited under this section.

This section is intended for general application throughout the counties enumerated in it. Therefore, no such county and no political subdivision located within any such county shall adopt or enforce any law, ordinance, rule, resolution, requirement, or policy regulating the phosphorus content of any household laundry detergent that is to be sold, offered for sale, or distributed for sale in that county or political subdivision.

Effective Date: 06-28-1988; 2008 SB214 09-01-2008 .