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

Vol. 1321 | 13 Sep 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 August 2022, there were a total of 298 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65. The majority of the notices were for Lead (48 %) and Phthalates (24 %). The remaining 28% were notices for the presence of other chemicals.

Of the reported notices, externally decorated glass and ceramics had 45 notices for lead; bags and cases had 21 notices for the presence of phthalates and 1 notice for the presence of other chemicals. 8 notices were served for the presence of phthalates in the packaging of various consumer products. Footwear had 6 notices for the presence of phthalates; dietary supplements had 12 notices for the presence of lead, and 1 notice for other chemicals; sports and outdoors accounted for 4 notices for the presence of phthalates and 3 notices for the presence of other chemicals.

Noticeably, 4 notices were served for Hexavalent Chromium in various items including bags and cases, sports and outdoors and personal accessories. The category of beauty and personal care had 54 notices for the presence of other chemicals such as Titanium Dioxide, and Diethanolamine, 5 notices for the presence of lead, and 1 notice for the presence of phthalates.

For local and worldwide companies manufacturing and/or operating in the state of California, Intertek’s Prop 65 compliance services provide the expert support and laboratory testing qualifications needed to comply with regulations and mitigate complexities. Simply contact us.

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).