SB 1316: Tissue banks: human milk.

Existing law, with certain exceptions, requires a tissue bank operating in California to have a current valid license issued by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law defines a tissue bank as a place, establishment, or institution that collects, processes, stores, or distributes tissue for transplantation into human beings. Existing law defines tissue to include human bodily fluids, and defines transplantation to include by ingestion. The department may suspend or revoke a tissue bank license for specified reasons. A violation of the provisions regulating tissue banks is a misdemeanor.

This bill would define a human milk tissue bank as a tissue bank that provides financial compensation to a participating mother for procuring human milk for the purpose of human consumption, and would define a participating mother as a woman who provides her human milk to a human milk tissue bank in exchange for financial compensation. The bill would require a human milk tissue bank licensed by the department that collects, processes, stores, or distributes human milk to, among other things, work with lactation support groups to provide breastfeeding education and lactation support for a participating mother, from whom the tissue bank procures human milk, as provided. The bill would prohibit a human milk these tissue bank banks from, among other things, procuring human milk from providing payment to a mother for human milk the tissue bank procures from her within her first 180 90 days postpartum. The bill would require the department to adopt, on or before January 1, 2018, rules and regulations governing a human milk these tissue bank banks that, at a minimum, are substantially based upon the guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America for safely procuring, processing, storing, and distributing human milk, and would require a human milk these tissue bank banks to comply with the latter guidelines until the department adopts those rules and regulations. The bill would provide that a violation of its provisions is not punishable as a misdemeanor under existing law. The bill would provide that its provisions remain in effect only until January 1, 2022.