U.S. – February 2022 California Proposition 65 – 60-Day Notices Analysis

Vol. 1297 | 21 Apr 2022

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, any district attorney, certain city attorneys, or any individual acting in the public interest. Prop 65 requires that individuals acting in the public’s interest enforce the Act by giving notice of the impending action to the persons alleged to be committing the violation, along with the Attorney General, district attorneys, and certain city attorneys where the alleged violation has 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 February 2022, there were a total of 226 60-day Notices of Violation under Prop 65, a 20% increase from January 2022. 42% of notices were for lead, and 38% for phthalates.

Of the reported notices, products under the categories of food accounted for 68 notices; 29 notices for bags & cases (all but one was for the presence of a phthalate chemical); 26 notices for beauty and personal care; 15 notices for lead in externally decorated glass and ceramics; and also 15 notices for lead in dietary supplements. In other categories, sports and outdoors accounted for 14 notices; footwear accounted for 8 notices; and 6 notices for tools. Products under arts & craft, hardware, kitchen and dining, and home storage & organization all received 5 notices each.

There were 9 notices for BPA in socks, bags & cases, cellphone cases, and sports & outdoor items. There was one notice related to formaldehyde in bedding, which has been targeted by a few notices in the past couple of months.

For questions, please contact Matthew Nudell (matthew.nudell@intertek.com, +1 716-225-9006) or Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com , +1 847 212 8273).