Kid tables without proposition 658/31/2023 The accord was withdrawn after the attorney general said it “appears simply to be a payment to the enforcer and her counsel in exchange for the agreement not to sue.” A plumbing company in 2017 agreed to confidentially pay one San Diego plaintiff’s lawyer nearly $15,000 without promising to change anything about phthalates in dryer hoses. Another settlement for $40,000 tried to resolve an acrylamide exposure case by changing the preheating instructions for frozen organic potatoes before the attorney general declared the settlement contrary to the law, against public policy and unenforceable. One $100,000 settlement over lead in salsa didn’t eliminate lead and didn’t result in a printed warning, either it changed fine print on the label - the “portion” went from a tablespoon to a teaspoon. More commonly, it pushes back against abuses by the primary enforcer empowered by the fine print of Proposition 65 - citizen prosecutors who have filed more than 30,000 violation notices under the measure since it went into effect in 1988.įour consecutive attorneys general have accused these citizen enforcers and their attorneys of preying on companies that can ill afford to defend themselves, of filing weak or frivolous cases, collecting unreasonable fees, and offering illusory remedies in settlements that vaccinate companies from further accountability for their products. These days, the attorney general’s office files few cases. In the early years of Proposition 65, state attorneys general filed actions against industrial polluters and makers of widely used products with high concentrations of toxins - it won agreements limiting lead in ceramics and acrylamide in French fries, for example. From smoking pot, and burning the rolling papers used to twist it up. From chewing on the plastic frames of glasses, leaving them on your nose, or touching the zipper pull of their carrying case. Where Proposition 65 prosecutions once targeted notoriously hazardous toxins such as mercury found in hemorrhoid suppositories and lead in spiced Mexican candies, they now claim that cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm might arise from dalliances with bondage tape or from opening a Bible from grasping a pair of pliers with bare hands, or donning polyurethane-coated safety gloves. More than three decades later, Plesent and many other manufacturers find themselves at odds with a lawsuit mill that has grown around Proposition 65, which gave citizens the right to prosecute companies through the same county courts that handle divorces and fender-benders. That was exactly what Proposition 65’s architects had in mind when they convinced California voters to approve the ballot initiative in 1986 - to coerce companies into replacing toxic chemicals with safe ones rather than bear the burden of a Scarlet Letter stamped on their products. And a warning that it harbored a “chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.”Ĭonfused? So was Larry Plesent, who founded his soap company in presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ liberal home state on the notion of replacing “yucky” chemicals with “yummy” natural ones. Chemicals will also be listed if they are required to be labeled or identified as a carcinogen or as a reproductive toxicant by an agency of the state or federal government.Vermont Soap’s feel-good natural products came with everything a California consumer had come to expect: an organic certification, a non-GMO seal of approval, a “cruelty free” bunny silhouette. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and International Agency for Research on Cancer. For reproductive toxicants, appropriate authorities include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer are considered authoritative for carcinogens. Proposition 65 requires that the Governor of California maintain and publish a list of these harmful chemicals, and update it annually.Ī chemical is listed if it has been classified as a reproductive toxicant or carcinogen by an "authoritative" organization on the subject. They may be used in manufacturing and construction, or be the byproducts of chemical processes. ![]() ![]() ![]() They may be additives or ingredients in pesticides, common household products, food, drugs, dyes or solvents. The Prop 65 list contains a wide range of naturally occurring and synthetic chemicals that are known to California to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm.
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