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

Vol. 1299 | 29 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 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 March 2022, there were a total of 243 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65. The majority of the notices were for Phthalates (41 %) and lead (39%). The remaining 20% were for the presence of other chemicals.

Of the reported notices, 27 notices were for bags & cases, all pertaining to phthalates; externally decorated glass and ceramics had 17 notices solely due to the presence of lead; dietary supplements products had 16 notices; sports and outdoors accounted for 12 notices.

Noticeably there was one notice for bisphenol A (BPA) in face protectors (PPE), and 5 notices served for the presence of Hexavalent Chromium in apparel, accessories, and PPE. There were 5 notices served for the presence of PFOA in straws and 8 notices served for phthalates in packaging.

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).