Vol. 1116 | 19 Nov 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 September 2019, there were 167 60-day notices served for the violation of Prop 65, which was almost 25% lower than the number of 60-day notices served in August 2019 (225 notices). Three-fourths (75%) of the notices were for exposure to phthalates, 20% of notices were for exposure to lead and the remaining were for other chemicals.

Bags, which include pouches and cases, accounted for 34% of the notices (53 notices for phthalate content and 4 notices for lead), followed by tools with 14% of the notices (6 notices for lead, 14 notices for phthalate content and 3 notices for other substances), and dietary supplements with 12% of the notices (16 notices for lead and 3 notices for phthalate content).

There were 4 notices for phthalate content in bedding packaging; 6 notices for footwear: 1 each for lead and hexavalent chromium & 4 for phthalate content; 2 notices for gloves: 1 each for hexavalent chromium and phthalate content; and 4 notices for phthalate content in home organization products such as shoe organizers & storage boxes.

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


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

 

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