In 1978, the Love Canal disaster caused an upswing in funding for the unit, which grew to seventy people before being made an official branch of the department.

In 1981, the unit was renamed to the Toxic Substances Control Division, consisting of a laboratory in Berkeley and a headquarters office in Sacramento, and took on public information duties.

OCI is staffed with criminal investigators (sworn California State Peace Officers), environmental scientists and computer forensics specialists.

[8] In 2015, Exide lead contamination raised concerns about longstanding problems at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The governor and state legislators sought new laws, oversight hearings, and other reform efforts after a battery recycling facility east of Los Angeles was allowed to operate without a full permit for more than three decades and the company was not required to set aside adequate funds to clean up pollution coming from the plant.