BPA Back on Proposition 65 List?

January 15, 2015
Ann Grimaldi

On December 5, 2014, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) — and the business community — suffered a loss in a lawsuit brought against the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment over the Proposition 65 listing of bisphenol A (BPA). In a twenty-page ruling, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley concluded that OEHHA did not abuse its discretion when in 2013 it proposed to list the chemical as a reproductive toxicant under the Proposition 65 authoritative bodies mechanism. Judge Frawley entered judgment denying ACC any relief.

The December 2014 ruling followed ACC’s April 2013 interim victory in the lawsuit when a different judge in the case issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting OEHHA from listing BPA. The December 2014 ruling maintains that preliminary injunction in place until the expiration for the time to file a notice of appeal, at which time ACC, if it chooses to appeal the ruling, may ask the court of appeals to impose a stay of the listing.

Ann Grimaldi

Ms. Grimaldi maintains a diverse environmental law practice focusing on chemical and product regulation and litigation defense. Her practice areas include Proposition 65, California's Safer Consumer Products Regulations, California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Act and the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. Ms. Grimaldi graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law magna cum laude and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Bacteriology from University of California, Davis. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a research assistant in laboratories at the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Research Institute and at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.