What's Next for California?

[KennyG]

I can't figure out how you Californians can keep up with it. I've gotten used to finding that everything I buy causes cancer in California but what's with garage door openers? I have an opener that seems to be failing so I was looking at current prices and options. I found that openers without battery backup can no longer be sold in California. Did someone make a deal with battery manufacturers? Our snow and ice looks more like a bargain all the time.

 

[4get gto]

Think of the bright side.. We still get to buy those little smog polluting gas engine's that aren't epa rated... :thumbsup:

 

[fishheadbob]

I've thought for a while now that California laboratories buy the cheapest rats they can find. Probably Chinese. Look at them cross-eyed and they come down with hideous cancers.

 

[Alan W.]

I remember telling my wife where the new shovel was one day and her coming to tell me she wanted the old one, because there was something in the new one that caused cancer. The sticker said so.
It was a plain wood handled shovel like the ones my grandfathers used.
Now that I think about it every old person I knew growing up that used a shovel is dead now. Maybe there is something to it.

 

[atsah]

Considering the gibberish the celebs do out there, the what's next is up in the air..

 

[ericm979]

Here's a reasonably short summary of the current situation with Prop 65 should anyone be interested in facts: Cancer Warning Labels Based on California's Proposition 65

Note that the requirements changed recently so the warnings have to say what chemical they're warning about rather than just a blanket warning. It's kind of made a mess of things, because vendors have to get that information from their suppliers who have to get it from manufacturers who may not be keeping track and they don't have a pathway to report it back up the chain.

California has a public proposition system where any citizen can get a proposition on the ballot if they gather enough signatures. Some of them are things that would probably not come out of a legislature. Which can be good or bad. In this case a majority of people voted for the thing back in the '80s and now we're stuck with it.

My opinion is that it's well intentioned but there's been some unforseen side effects. Such as when everything has a cancer warning people just ignore the warnings. I think that was the reason for going to the specific chemical name, but that's generated more side effects as I noted above.

 

[bunyip]

Considering the gibberish the celebs do out there, the what's next is up in the air..

Yes, they do dribble some bovine excrement don't they, suddenly experts on everything.

 

[Chris616]

I'll be the devil's advocate and state that a lot of good legislation in North America got a push from actions in California. The best example that I can think of was the state-wide ban on smoking in restaurants introduced in 1995.

Based on the rationale explained in the news release posted at the end of my message, the garage door opener issue doesn't seem a bad idea. I do wonder how many of the systems will fail to operate on battery power some years into the future, though.

Most new garage door openers have DC motors now, so once batteries are mandatory the additional cost will eventually be not much more than the cost of the inexpensive battery (right now it seems that the openers with that one option also have all the other costly options - just like how vehicles are sold).

A large percentage of people wouldn't be able to open a garage door manually in a power outage:
- Release handle too high for them or is missing.
- Can't reach the handle because of the vehicle parked underneath.
- Door springs improperly tensioned to allow the door to be lifted manually.
- And the most common reason "I didn't know that there was a way to operate the door manually".

There was a lot of resistance to the introduction of safety reversing sensors, but most of us recognize that they have value even though they're a pain sometimes. The previous owners of our house apparently thought otherwise since when we moved in the sensors were mounted to the top of the opener facing each other.

Chris



LONG BEACH, Calif., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- California has recently had its most destructive fire season with widespread power outages that made it difficult and or impossible for some to escape. With the loss of electricity, garage door openers were impacted and deaths were attributed to homeowners becoming trapped and who perished because they could not open their garage doors manually.

Reports from the 2017 Northern California fires recounted stories of neighbors stopping to help raise garage doors for elderly people who didn't have the strength to manually open their garage door, and a mother who struggled to get her disabled son into a car because their custom van was in the garage they couldn't open.

On September 1, 2018 Governor Brown signed SB 969 into law. This legislation requires newly sold or installed garage door openers in residential applications to have battery backup up in the state of California.

California SB 969 Facts

• The law goes into effect July 1, 2019.
• The law applies to all new garage doors and garage door opener installations.
• Homeowners must install a battery backup opener when a new door is installed or when they replace their existing opener.
• Existing openers in use will not have to be replaced with battery backup openers unless the door is being replaced.
• On or after July 1, 2019 no person, corporation, or entity shall manufacture for sale in this state, sell, offer for sale at retail or wholesale, or install in the state of California a residential automatic garage door opener that does not a have battery backup function that is designed to operate when activated because of an electrical outage.

 

[tom3]

I wonder if the ink in the cancer warning labels can cause cancer?

 

[Wagtail]

I've thought for a while now that California laboratories buy the cheapest rats they can find. Probably Chinese. Look at them cross-eyed and they come down with hideous cancers.

Nah... it's simply that laboratory scientists hate rats and mice.