Ann Grimaldi

On April 18, 2016, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment adopted Proposition 65 emergency regulations governing safe harbor warnings for bisphenol A (BPA) in canned and bottled foods and beverages.  The emergency regulations, which pertain only to canned and bottled foods and beverages (and no other products) went into effect immediately upon OEHHA's adoption. GLO previously reported on OEHHA's emergency regulations.  In short, the regulations specify how manufacturers, producers, packagers, importers and distributors of canned and bottled foods and beverages may discharge their obligation to provide warnings for exposures to BPA in those products.  To take advantage of the protection afforded by…

On April 8, 2016, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment published a proposed warning level for ethylene glycol of 8,700 micrograms per day.  The deadline for public comments is May 23, 2016. Ethylene glycol, used in antifreeze products and other applications, was listed as a reproductive toxicant via the authoritative bodies mechanism on June 19, 2015 -- meaning that the warning requirement for the substance goes into effect on June 19, 2016. Significantly, the listing was confined to the oral route of exposure. Even so, the listing presented some scientific controversy. Notwithstanding a number of studies showing that no reproductive…

The California Office of Administrative Law has published the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's revised emergency regulations on bisphenol A, which means that the public comment period for these regulations ends on April 13, 2016. Once finalized, these emergency regulations will establish the safe harbor method for providing Proposition 65 warnings for bisphenol A in canned and bottled foods and beverages. GLO previously reported on OEHHA's emergency regulations on bisphenol A (BPA). BPA was identified as a Proposition 65 reproductive toxicant on May 11, 2015, meaning that the warning requirement becomes effective on May 11, 2016.  This substance is used…

On March 17, 2016, the Mayor of the District of Columbia signed B21-0143  into law, banning the flame retardants tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP) and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP).  In doing so, the District of Columbia now has joined a number of other states, including Maryland, Minnesota and New York, in banning flame retardants from consumer (and especially children's) products. The new law will ban children's products and residential upholstered furniture from containing more than 0.1% of these chemicals by mass. This ban goes into effect January 1, 2018.  The ban becomes extended to all products on January 1, 2019. However, the law exempts a number…

On February 19, 2016, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment announced that it is initiating the development of hazard identification materials on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts and on perfluorooctane sulfonate  (PFOS) and its salts. Members of the public are invited to submit information as part of this data call in. This data call in period ends on April 4, 2016. OEHHA's announcement follows the November 2015 meeting of the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (DARTIC), at which the DARTIC members identified these same chemicals as high priority for listing.  Hazard identification materials for these chemicals…