A year from now, dramatic changes to California’s Proposition 65 warning regulations take full effect. The new regulations (formally published by the State in August 2016) significantly alter the “safe harbor” rules for providing Prop 65 warnings. Companies that have not yet started preparing for the implications of these new rules will need to do so before the new regulations go into full effect on August 30, 2018.
Under Prop 65, businesses with 10 or more employees must provide “clear and reasonable warning” before knowingly and intentionally exposing individuals in California to a chemical listed by the state as known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. The Prop 65 regulations provide a safe harbor for warning language and methods of transmission officially deemed “clear and reasonable.” That safe harbor will shrink significantly under the new regulations. A generic Prop 65 warning that does not identify a specific chemical will no longer be sufficient in most circumstances. Many warnings will also have to contain the exclamation point within a triangle symbol shown left and be given in multiple languages. Finally, virtually all warnings will need to include either the URL “P65Warnings.ca.gov,” or the food-product-specific “P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.”