California Proposition 65 (1986)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Proposition 65 is a California law that has been in effect since 1986 to promote clean drinking water and keep toxic substances that cause cancer and birth defects out of consumer products. It is administered by Cal/EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

The law requires that anyone at reasonable risk of exposure be informed when substances classified as toxins are present. Since enactment, it has been the reason for the addition of notices of specific contents to consumer product labels. Along with the added label requirements, an official list of implicated substances is maintained and made publicly available. Entries are added or removed based on current scientific information. All substances listed show their known or suspected risk factors, a unique CAS chemical classification number, the date they were listed, and if so, whether they have been delisted.

1 Enforcement
2 Warning Label
3 Abuse of Proposition 65
4 See also
5 External links
6 Footnotes

[edit] Enforcement

Enforcement is carried out through civil lawsuits. These lawsuits may be brought by the Attorney General, any district attorney, or certain city attorneys (those in cities with a population exceeding 750,000). Lawsuits may also be brought by private parties "acting in the public interest", but only after providing notice of the alleged violation to the Attorney General, the appropriate district attorney and city attorney, and the business accused of the violation.

The notice must provide adequate information to allow the recipient to assess the nature of the alleged violation. A notice must comply with the information and procedural requirements specified in regulations. A private party may not pursue an enforcement action directly under Proposition 65 if one of the government officials noted above initiates an action within sixty days of the notice.

A business found to be in violation of Proposition 65 is subject to civil penalties of up to $2,500 per day for each violation. In addition, the business may be ordered by a court of law to stop committing the violation. ^[1]

[edit] Warning Label

WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. This warning label appears on products if they contain chemicals on the Proposition 65 list of hazardous substances.

[edit] Abuse of Proposition 65

The legislation is very controversial. Most of the Proposition 65 lawsuits are filed by private attorneys some of whose entire business is built on filing Proposition 65 lawsuits.

Labeling requirements conceded the reality that listing and classifying substances did not help the consumer if the contents of a purchase were unknown. At the same time, there were no other labeling requirements to support the proposition. Industry critics and corporate defense lawyers charge that Proposition 65 is "a clever and irritating mechanism used by litigious NGOs and others to publicly spank politically incorrect opponents ranging from the American gun industry to seafood retailers, etc." ^[2]

In addition, because of a loophole in the law allowing private citizens to sue and collect damages to any business violating the law, there have been many cases of lawers and lawfirms using Proposition 65 as an extortion tool to force a settlement out of California businesses. ^[3]