| A ban on an environmentally harmful product found in beauty supplies, toothpaste and cleansers has been rejected by Governor Christie. Christie on Thursday conditionally vetoed a bill to stop the manufacture and sale of microbeads which are used as exfoliants or volumizers in many beauty products. Lawmakers in both the Senate and Assembly approved the bill unanimously earlier this year. In his veto message to them, Christie said he was concerned about severe punishments contained in the bill. “Under the bill, the retailer would be subject to draconian penalties of up to $10,000 per product, per day,” Christie said in his veto message to the Legislature. “A few tubes of out-of-date face wash combined with overzealous enforcement of this ban could easily drive a small business owner into bankruptcy.” Microbeads can’t be filtered by wastewater treatment plants. And the beads contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to fish, proponents of the legislation said. The legislation called for the manufacture of microbeads to be banned by 2018 and their sale to be banned by 2020. Christie acknowledged that manufacturers supported the bill and planed to phase out microbeads. “Nevertheless, although representatives of the affected industry expect that microbead-containing products will be off the market by the time the prohibitions in this bill would take effect, I can foresee a circumstance where a... |
