Research Using Death Records Produced in the State of California

 Effective January 1, 2003, California law requires local HRRBs to review research using State of California-produced death data files containing personal identifying information (i.e., state issued death certificates and indices). Major points related to this new law are:

• It is more restrictive than federal human research protection regulations, which govern use of living humans or identifiable data about living humans.
• It requires HRRBs to protect identifiable information from state death data files as carefully as information about living persons.
• UCR researchers wishing, for research purposes, to obtain state death data files containing personal identifying information are now required to submit an application for HRRB review. 

Because state death records do not fall under the federal exemption from HRRB approval for research on publicly available existing data (as these records are no longer publicly available), such studies may require expedited review under 45 CFR 46.110. In order for an HRRB to permit such a study, the state requires that the researcher must have a "valid scientific interest." 

The full text of the relevant sections of the law is available here in PDF format.