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

Vol. 1104 | 24 Sep 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 August 2019, there were 225 60-day notices served for the violation of Prop 65, which was almost same as the 60-day notices served in July 2019 (219 notices). A total of 69% of the notices were for exposure to phthalates, 11% of notices were for exposure to lead and the remaining were for other chemicals.

Bags, which includes pouches and cases, accounted for 22% (all 49 notices for phthalate content), followed by food for 21% (9 notices for lead and 37 notices for other substances), and tools with 15% (all 32 notices for phthalate content).

There were 19 60-day notices (9%) served for phthalates in packaging; 13 of those notices were for packaging for bedding, 2 notices for toy packaging, and 1 each for bath accessories, clothing, fashion accessories, and furniture packaging.

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

click to enlarge

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