U.S. – February 2019 California Proposition 65 – 60-Day Notices Analysis

Vol. 1068 | 03 Apr 2019

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly referred to as Proposition 65 (Prop 65), is enforced by the California Attorney General's office or any district attorney or certain city attorneys or by any individual acting in the public interest. Prop 65 requires that an individual acting in the public interest, to enforce the Act give notice of the impending action to the person alleged to be committing the violation, along with the Attorney General, district attorneys and certain city attorneys in which the violation is alleged to have occurred. The notice must be sent to these parties no less than 60 days before commencing the action; thus this notice is commonly referred to as the "60-day Notice of Violation"

In February 2019, there were 208 60-day notices served for violation of Prop 65). Two-thirds (66%) of the notices were for exposure to phthalates, 8% of notices were for exposure to lead and rest of them were for other chemicals.

Alcoholic beverages containing ethyl alcohol accounted for 19% (39 notices), followed by bags containing phthalates with 16% (33 notices). It is interesting to note that packaging for bedding was targeted eight times for presence of phthalates, and similarly in the home organization category various type of organizers (shoe, over the door, hampers, etc.) were targeted eight times for presence of phthalates.

A detailed analysis of the Prop 65 60-day notices for February 2019 is below: