Ninth Circuit provides companies new guidance and much needed potential relief in Prop 65 litigation

[Source: JDSUPRA/Jeffrey Goldman & Victoria Phan-Troutman Pepper] For decades, companies have faced lawsuits for violation of the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, also known as “Prop 65.” Some of these actions are legitimate, while others often bear resemblance to a shakedown. Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit may have provided some much Read More…

The profusion of notices stemming from Prop. 65 leaves shoppers potentially unprotected

[Source: Los Angeles Times] 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. And a warning that it harbored a “chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.” Confused? Read More…

Environmental groups call for government to label ‘forever chemicals’

[Source: Newsweek] Eighty-two environmental organizations expressed concern on Tuesday that Senator Jim Inhofe had stripped language about so-called “forever chemicals” suspected to affect 400 U.S. military sites from the National Defense Authorization Bill. In a “skinny” NDAA bill submitted last month, Inhofe, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, removed language regarding pervasive Per-and Read More…

High level of toxic emissions cause closure of Anaplex, Paramount metal-finishing facility

[Source: Press-Telegram] The metal-finishing company Anaplex Corp. in Paramount was forced to close because of high-level emissions of a carcinogen on Thursday, Oct. 4, for the seventh time since February 2017. The South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered the temporary closure because the agency’s air monitors found above-threshold levels of toxic hexavalent chromium at the Read More…