U.S. – May 2020 California Proposition 65 – 60-Day Notices Analysis

Vol. 1163 | 12 Jun 2020

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 2020, there were a total of 198 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65, down from the 239 notices served in April 2020. The majority of the notices were for other chemicals, accounting for 41% of the total recalls, which includes acrylamide, cadmium, and marijuana smoke. A total of 39% of the notices were for phthalates and the remaining 20% of the notices were for lead.

Food accounted for 83 (42%) of the total notices, followed by bags, which includes purses and cases, with 10% of notices (20 total notices for phthalates). Sports & outdoors had 14 notices (13 phthalate notice, 1 lead notice), which included 4 notices for phthalates in a sports armband.

Notably, there were 10 notices for marijuana products for marijuana smoke.

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For questions, please contact Stella Xingyu Li (xingyu.li@intertek.com, +1 503 351 9612 ) or Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com , +1 847 212 8273).