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

Vol. 1137 | 11 Mar 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 November 2019, there were 155 60-day notices served for violation of Prop 65, down from 187 notices served in October 2019. A total 105 notices – representing 67% – were for exposure to phthalates, 16% (26 total) of notices were for exposure to lead and the other 24 notices were for other chemicals.

Bags, which include cases, pouches and packaging accounted for 34% (53 notices for phthalates), followed by food with 12% (19 notices). It is interesting to note that hexavalent chromium continues to be a target in leather products, with one each for gloves and footwear; uniform apparel has been targeted for presence of formaldehyde; phone accessories and protective face shields have been targeted for presence of BPA and in the outdoor grilling category various type of fire starters and lighters were targeted three times for presence of carbon monoxide.

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

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For questions, please contact Laxmi Ravikumar (laxmi.ravikumar@intertek.com, +1 630-209-9265) or Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1-847-212-8273).