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

Vol. 1240 | 23 Apr 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 March 2021, there were a total of 300 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65, up from the 296 notices served in February 2021. Majority of the notices were for lead and phthalates, accounting for 34% and 40% of the total notices, respectively. Of the remaining, 6 were for hexavalent chromium in gloves and 10 for bisphenol-A in a variety of products including hardware, storage products and phone accessories.

Bags and cases accounted for 18 notices (6%), packaging products and materials had 10 notices (3%), while food accounted for 106 notices (35%) and dietary supplements accounted for 21 notices (7%).

Notably, there were 16 notices for lead in externally decorated glass and ceramicware products, 5 notices for phthalates in medical products and 5 notices for phthalates in fashion accessories. Gloves had a total of 10 notices, 6 for hexavalent chromium and 4 for phthalates.

For questions, please contact Laxmi Ravikumar (laxmi.ravikumar@intertek.com, +1 503 351 9612 ) or Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com , +1 847 212 8273).