S. 289: Youth Poisoning Protection Act
Sponsor
Tammy Duckworth
Democrat · IL
Keep concentrated sodium nitrite off consumer shelves
Why it matters
Products with 10% or more sodium nitrite would be pulled from the consumer market within 90 days. If S. 289 passes, you would no longer be able to buy these concentrated products as ordinary consumer goods.
S. 289 would ban consumer products made with 10% or more sodium nitrite, and sellers would have just 90 days to stop offering them to the public.
This is a targeted consumer-product ban, not a blanket ban on every use of sodium nitrite. If a product is sold as a normal consumer item and hits that 10% concentration threshold, it would be treated under federal law as a banned hazardous product.
The bill draws a bright line: ordinary consumers lose access, but food, medicine, cosmetics, meat, poultry, eggs, and non-consumer industrial uses stay exempt. That means the proposal is aimed at concentrated retail products, not cured foods or regulated medical products.
The practical effect falls most heavily on online marketplaces, retailers, and manufacturers. They would need to identify covered products and remove them from consumer sale fast, because the bill's deadline is only three months after enactment.
The biggest unknown is enforcement in edge cases — especially products that are marketed in ways that blur the line between consumer and industrial use. The bill creates the rule, but sellers and regulators would still have to sort out which listings and packages count as consumer products.
Bill Progress
Latest Action · Aug 10, 2026
Passed the Senate, received in House
S. 289 Bill Summary
What S. 289 actually does.
Consumer sales stop at the 10% threshold
If a consumer product contains 10% or more sodium nitrite by weight, S. 289 would treat it as a banned hazardous product and remove it from the consumer market.
Retailers get 90 days to pull covered products
The bill takes effect 90 days after enactment, giving stores, online sellers, and manufacturers a short window to stop selling covered products to the public.
Industrial and commercial uses stay legal
Products made for commercial or industrial uses are exempt when they are not customarily produced or distributed for consumer sale or use.
Food and medical products are carved out
The bill does not apply to products that qualify as food, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, meat, poultry, or egg products under existing federal definitions.
Enforcement runs through existing consumer-safety law
Rather than creating a new system, S. 289 places covered products into the federal framework already used for banned hazardous consumer products.
Who benefits from S. 289?
Families worried about easy access to dangerous chemicals
If concentrated sodium nitrite products disappear from normal consumer sales, parents and caregivers would have fewer high-risk products to worry about showing up in the house from a store shelf or online order.
Retailers that want one national rule
A single federal standard — 10% or more sodium nitrite, banned from consumer sale — gives chains and online platforms a clearer compliance rule across all states.
Consumer-safety advocates
They would get a narrow federal restriction aimed at consumer access to concentrated sodium nitrite without reopening rules for food, medicine, or industrial supply chains.
Who is affected by S. 289?
Manufacturers of concentrated consumer chemical products
If they sell products to the public with 10% or more sodium nitrite by weight, they would need to reformulate, relabel, move those products out of the consumer market, or stop selling them there.
Online marketplaces and store operators
They would need to review listings, inventory, and product categories quickly because covered products could no longer be sold as consumer goods once the 90-day window closes.
Consumers looking for these products
You would lose legal access to covered high-concentration sodium nitrite products sold as ordinary consumer items, even though exempt food, drug, cosmetic, and industrial products would remain available in their own channels.
Industrial and regulated food or health sectors
These sectors are mostly affected by compliance sorting, not a direct ban, because the bill specifically exempts non-consumer industrial uses and a long list of regulated product categories.
What Congress Is Saying
S. 289 has come up 13 times in the Congressional Record so far.
S. 289 also appeared in 2 more Senate floor references and 3 routine cosponsor filings.
S289 Legislative Journey
House: Action Taken
Aug 10, 2026
Held at the desk.
Passed 4411-4412
Aug 3, 2026
Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S4411-4412; text: CR S4411-4412)
+1 more action this day
Committee Action
Jul 29, 2025
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz without amendment. With written report No. 119-49.
Passed Committee
Mar 12, 2025
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
Committee Action
Jan 29, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
About the Sponsor
Tammy Duckworth
Democrat, IL · 13 years in Congress
Committees: Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Veterans' Affairs, Foreign Relations
View full profile →
Cosponsors (3)
This bill has 3 cosponsors: 1 Democrat, 2 Republicans, reflecting bipartisan support. Cosponsors represent 3 states: Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin.
Committee Sponsors
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
3 of 28 committee members cosponsored
12 Democrats across this committee haven't cosponsored yet. Mobilize their constituents
S. 289 Quick Facts
- Committee
- Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Chamber
- Senate
- Policy
- Commerce
- Introduced
- Jan 29, 2025
Passed the Senate, received in House
Aug 10, 2026
Official Sources
Official bill status, text, sponsors, and actions for the Youth Poisoning Protection Act.
The CPSC is the federal agency that administers and enforces the consumer product safety laws referenced in the bill.
This is the U.S. Code section the bill cites when designating high-concentration sodium nitrite consumer products as banned hazardous products.
This definitions section includes the statutory meaning of consumer product that the bill uses to determine what is covered.
The bill exempts products meeting the federal definitions of food, drug, device, and cosmetic found in this section.
USDA FSIS oversees meat, poultry, and egg product categories that the bill explicitly exempts from the consumer-product ban.
The bill references the Federal Meat Inspection Act definitions when exempting meat and meat food products.
The bill references statutory poultry definitions from this law when preserving the food exemption.
The bill cites this statute for the definitions of eggs and egg products that remain outside the ban.
S. 289 Common Questions
What does S. 289 actually ban?
S. 289 bans consumer products containing 10% or more sodium nitrite by weight. If it passes, those products could no longer be sold to the public as ordinary consumer goods.
How fast would stores have to pull these products?
The bill takes effect 90 days after enactment. That gives retailers, marketplaces, and manufacturers about three months to stop consumer sales of covered products.
Would this ban sodium nitrite in food?
No. S. 289 specifically exempts products that qualify as food, including meat, poultry, and egg products covered by existing federal definitions.
Are drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics exempt?
Yes. The bill says products that qualify as drugs, devices, or cosmetics under existing federal definitions are not covered by the ban.
Does S. 289 ban industrial sodium nitrite use?
No. The bill says commercial and industrial uses stay exempt when the product is not customarily produced or distributed for consumer sale or use.
Would online marketplaces have to remove listings?
Yes, for covered consumer products. Once the 90-day deadline passes, marketplaces and retailers could not keep selling products that meet the bill's 10% threshold.
Is this a ban on all sodium nitrite products?
No. It is a narrow consumer-sales ban for high-concentration products. Exempt categories like food, cosmetics, drugs, and non-consumer industrial uses would still be allowed.
How does the bill decide which products are covered?
Two things matter: the product must count as a consumer product, and it must contain at least 10% sodium nitrite by weight. If both are true, S. 289 treats it as banned from consumer sale.
Based on S. 289 bill text
S. 289 Bill Text
“To ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrite to individuals, and for other purposes.”
Source: U.S. Government Publishing Office
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