60-Day Notices: What’s Happening With Proposition 65 So Far in 2020

Since January 1, 2020 there have been more than 940 60-day notices filed with the California Attorney General’s office for Proposition 65 violations. These notices were filed by 50 notifying parties and cover a significant breadth of products including foods, dietary supplements, kitchen appliances, tools and hardware, and a variety of other consumer products.

Importantly, just because a Proposition 65-listed chemical is not included in recent 60-day notices doesn’t mean your risk of litigation is low. For example, 15 60-day notices have been filed in the last five years for respirable crystalline silica, but it does not appear on this list.

Crystalline silica (respirable particulate) is listed for Proposition 65 due to risk of developing certain lung cancers after inhalation exposure. Crystalline silica is found in a wide variety of products, including industrial filter aids, talc-based medicated powders and baby powders, and is a risk where dusts may be generated during product use. Although a safe harbor level has not been established for crystalline silica, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) recently issued a Safe Use Determination for a wood filler product containing crystalline silica that is applied to cracks and imperfections on wood surfaces. The dried filler is sanded and thus may introduce inhaled exposure to respirable crystalline silica. This assessment cited human epidemiology studies that provide evidence that exposure to crystalline silica in a range of 0.54 - 15 µg/m3 is associated with an extra cancer risk of 100,000. Therefore, in accordance with OEHHA regulations, lifetime average exposures observed below this level would be considered of no significant risk and thus would not incur a warning under Proposition 65.

Proactive assessment of exposure from typical use to listed compounds in your product alleviates litigation risks! Do you need help conducting such as assessment? Feel free to reach out! NSF has the expertise to support your product review.