Veto Blocks Diaper Bill

Gov. George Deukmejian on Monday vetoed legislation by a San Diego senator that would have prohibited day-care centers from refusing infants who wear cloth diapers.

The measure was viewed as a way to protect parents who believe that disposable diapers are clogging the nation’s landfills.

“The bill would have removed an institutional obstacle from the pathway of consumers who want to exercise an environmentally friendly choice when diapering their infant,” said the measure’s author, Sen. Lucy Killea, D-San Diego. “Unfortunately, many parents will not have that choice.”

But Deukmejian, in his veto message, argued that stringent state sanitation requirements for day-care centers that use cloth diapers make it unprofitable for some to allow cloth diapers on children.

“This bill could force some day-care operators out of business, especially those operating in their own home,” the Republican governor said. “This would result, ironically, in less choice for parents rather than more choice.”

Killea’s legislation, however, would have allowed day-care centers to charge a fee for handling dirty cloth diapers. The fee could not have exceed a center’s actual costs.

Deukmejian also argued that the debate on whether cloth or disposable diapers are better for the environment “has yet to demonstrate that either is clearly superior.”

A study by Killea’s office found that about a quarter of the state’s day-care centers refuse to accept infants who wear cloth diapers unless they switch to plastic disposables.

Killea’s legislation would have made child day-care centers that refuse infants with cloth diapers subject to civil penalties of $50 for each day the violation occurs.