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 July 2021, there were a total of 253 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65, down from the 318 notices served in June 2021. The majority of the notices were for phthalates, accounting for 39%. There were nearly as many notices related to lead which made up 33% of all notices (when food is included as a category).
Of the remaining, 45 notices were for cadmium, arsenic, or acrylamide in food. 15 notices were for benzene, DEA/Cocamide DEA, or benzophenone in beauty & personal care products. A total of 9 notices were for bisphenol A in a variety of products such as receipt paper, face shields and cases for electronics. Noticeably there were 3 acetaldehyde notices for hand sanitizers, 5 titanium dioxide notices for cosmetics, and 2 hexavalent chromium notices, one for work gloves and another for grill gloves.
Food accounted for 102 notices (40%). Bags & cases had 36 notices, beauty & personal care products accounted for 27 notices, reusable packaging had 9 notices while dietary supplements accounted for 11 notices. Apparel & apparel accessories had 5 notices for phthalates.
In August 2021, there were a total of 335 60-day notices for violation of Prop 65. The majority of the notices were for phthalates, accounting for 45%, while lead had a total of 112 notices, about 21% of the total number of notices.
Notable product categories that were cited with 60-day notices included food (95 notices), bags & cases (55 notices), hand sanitizers (19 notices), beauty and personal care (15 notices), dietary supplements (12 notices), ceramic/glassware with exterior decoration (12 notices), and apparel and accessories (9 notices).
Following are additional notices of interest:
