U.S. – August 2021 California Proposition 65 – 60-Day Notices Analysis

Vol. 1273 | 14 Oct 2021

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 2021, there were a total of 335 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65. The majority of the notices were for phthalates, accounting for 45%, while lead had a total of 112 notices, about 21% of the total number of notices.

Notable product categories that were cited with 60-day notices included food (95 notices), bags & cases (55 notices), hand sanitizers (19 notices), beauty and personal care (15 notices), dietary supplements (12 notices), ceramic/glassware with exterior decoration (12 notices), and apparel and accessories (9 notices).

Following are additional notices of interest:

• 35 notices for acrylamide found in food and 12 notices pertaining to cadmium and/or lead compounds in food and dietary supplements
• 17 notices for Bisphenol A (BPA) for bags and cases, PPE, hardware and tools
• 7 notices for diethanolamine in beauty and personal care products
• 14 notices for acetaldehyde and 5 notices for benzene respectively for hand sanitizers
• 6 notices for chromium (VI) in accessories such as belts, mittens and gloves

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For questions, please contact Harini Ramaswamy (harini.ramaswamy@intertek.com, +1 847-871-1047) or Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com , +1 847 212 8273).