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OEHHA Dials Back Short Form Warning Proposal

On April 5, 2022, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) published further revisions to its proposal to amend the Proposition 65 short form warning. Comments on the revised proposal must be submitted no later than April 20, 2022 and may be submitted here.

The latest proposal still would require the short form warning to identify the chemical being warned for. Still, OEHHA includes changes that overall render it more palatable than OEHHA’s original proposal:

  • The label size restrictions have been removed, so that the short form warning can be used on any label size;
  • The font size restrictions contained in the original 2016 regulations have been removed, so that the only requirements are that the warning be prominent and conspicuous and that the font size cannot be smaller than 6 point font; and
  • The transition period for short form warnings to shift to the new version is extended from one year to two years.

The latest proposal also establishes modified alternative texts for the short form warning, e.g.: “Can expose you to [name of chemical], a carcinogen” instead of “Exposes you to [name of chemical], a carcinogen.”

 

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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.