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

Vol. 1245 | 19 May 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 April 2021, there were a total of 156 60-day notices for alleged violation of Prop 65, down from the 300 notices served in March 2021. A total of 62 of the notices were for phthalates, accounting for 40% of all notices. Of the rest, 30% were for lead or lead compound and the remaining 30% were for various other chemicals including acrylamide, cadmium, arsenic, BPA, marijuana smoke, carbon monoxide, silica, etc.

Food accounted for 43 (28%) of all notices and has been excluded from the graph. Dietary supplements had the second largest number of notices, accounting for 29 total notices (19%), with 27 of the 29 notices for dietary supplements for lead. Notably, the remaining two notices for dietary supplements were for cadmium and lead.  The next category of products with the greatest number of notices was bags and cases with 22 notices, of which 21 were for phthalates and 1 for BPA.

There were 11 60-day notices issued for BPA in tools, cases, furniture, sports and recreation, and PPE products. Among 10 sports & recreation product notices, 4 were issued for N-Nitrosodiethylamine and N-Nitrosodimethylamine in workout bands, and 1 each for BPA in a children’s helmet and a basketball hoop. Finally, there was 1 notice for silica, crystalline (airborne particles of respirable size), which was issued for sandblasting work. Notably, a trend we have seen continue from previous months, there was 1 notice in April for hexavalent chromium in gloves.

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For questions, please contact Stella Xingyu Li (xingyu.li@intertek.com, +1 503-351-9612 ) or Dr. Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1 847-212-8273).