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

Vol. 1222 | 27 Jan 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 December 2020, there were a total of 293 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65, down from the 314 notices served in November 2020. Nearly half the notices were for phthalates, accounting for 41%. Of the rest, 32% were for lead or lead compound and the remaining were for various other chemicals including acrylamide, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, marijuana smoke, etc.

Food accounted for 109 (37%) of all notices. The next category of products with the greatest number of notices was bags, which includes purses and cases, with 31 notices (11%), all of which were for phthalates. Notably, storage and reusable packaging continue to receive 60-day notices, with 15 notices in December (5%). Other interesting notices in December were 10 notices for lead in glassware and ceramic products with exterior decorations, three notices for phthalates in vinyl aprons, three notices for formaldehyde in bedding products, and two notices for children’s lab equipment – one for phthalates and one for bisphenol A (BPA).

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