A New Regulatory Proposal Coming in California

The overhaul to “short form” warnings under Prop 65 is temporarily paused in California, the US. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has decided to keep on hold this controversial proposal and instead issue an alternative regulatory proposal in the near future.

The proposal was originally intended to prompt provisions of clear and reasonable warnings in the use of short-form labels. Based on the state’s “Right-to-know Scheme”, the companies shall, for example, name a minimum of 1 listed chemical they would like to warn about in the products.

OEHHA has revised twice the proposal after its floating state in January 2021, so as to address stakeholders’ concerns. However,  businesses remain opposed to this action. Under the allotted time frame, the agency was however not able to complete the rule-making process as announced in a May 20 Notice. The rule-making is hence allowed to lapse and OEHHA intends to restart the process, involving issuing a new regulatory proposal informed by comments on the previous one.