In the state of California, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 is better known as Proposition 65. Ever since its original implementation in 1987, Proposition 65 has required the state to publish a list of chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic or cause any reproductive harm, including birth defects.
The current Proposition 65 list is over 300 chemicals long, and was last updated on April 8, 2016. On the first day of April of this same year, new regulations that will allow California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to create and publish a website that will provide additional information about Proposition 65 warnings for consumers also took effect. Some of this information will include things like the name of the listed chemical in the product or service, its concentration and the estimated level of exposure that consumers might experience.
That website is not yet live, and it is not clear when it will be. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment is keeping itself busy with many other aspects of Proposition 65 and its implementation while still working on producing this site, and is currently proposing changes to mandatory warnings on specific Proposition 65 labels. These proposed changes could require product sellers and vendors to display a specific hazard symbol on the label alongside a link to the relevant OEHHA website. They also would require that the seller list at least one chemical contained on the product in that label, include some foreign language warnings depending on the contents of the product, and attach that label to all products sold online to consumers in California.
Understanding what hazards a given product may contain shouldn’t just be subject to state-by-state laws. That hazard label isn’t the only place that customers can find out about Proposition 65 hazards – comprehensive safety data sheets like those that Quantum Compliance can create for you will display relevant information about Proposition 65 in their Section 15. Look to this section for relevant hazards no matter where you are in the world.
