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

Vol. 1086 | 26 Jun 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 May 2019, there were 253 60-day notices served for violation of Prop 65, which was up from 221 notices served in April 2019. Sixty-two percent of the notices were for exposure to phthalates, 17% of notices were for exposure to lead and the rest were for other chemicals.

Food accounted for 18% (45 notices), followed by Bags 12% (30 notices), and Tools 9% (23 notices). It is interesting to note that plastic packaging used for various products was targeted 16 times for presence of phthalates, and like last month various types of gloves were targeted three times for presence of hexavalent chromium.

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

click to enlarge

For questions, please contact Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1-847-212-8273).