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 require a 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 mother, from whom the tissue bank procures human milk, as provided. The bill would prohibit these tissue banks from, among other things, providing payment to a mother for human milk the tissue bank procures from her within her first 90 days postpartum. The bill would require the department to adopt, on or before January 1, 2018, rules and regulations governing these tissue 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 these tissue 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.