U.S. – June 2019 California Proposition 65 – 60-Day Notices Analysis
Vol. 1090 | 23 Jul 2019
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 June 2019, there were 151 60-day notices served for violation of Prop 65, representing a significant decrease from the 253 notices served in May 2019. Eighty percent of the notices were for exposure to phthalates, 5% of notices were for exposure to lead and rest of them were for other chemicals.
Bags and cases accounted for 26% (all 39 notices for phthalate content), followed by packaging for various products 19% (all 29 notices for phthalate content), and Food 13% (19 notices). The breakdown of product categories for plastic packaging is provided in the pie chart.
Another observation over the last couple of months, is that there were seven 60-day notices for hexavalent chromium (Chromium VI) in leather products such as gloves and footwear. The 60-day notice served on July 2nd was served to 18 companies, so this has potential to impact many brands and retailers. If you make or supply leather products or products that contain leather, where leather comes into contact with skin such as gloves, clothing, or footwear, then you should have a compliance strategy specifically for addressing chromium VI in such products.
A detailed analysis of the Prop 65 60-day notices for June 2019 is below:
For questions, please contact Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1-847-212-8273).