Prop 65 Warning Label Requirements for California
What is a Prop 65 warning label, and what’s the deal with the new Prop 65 warning label size requirements? In short, it’s the state of California protecting its residents from drinking water that may contain hazardous chemicals.
The State, through the authority of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), publishes a list of chemicals associated with the cause of cancer, birth defects, and related reproductive trauma. This list is updated at least once every year. The current version of the list that was originally published in 1986 contains over 900 chemicals.
Proposition 65, otherwise known as the Safe Drinking and Toxic Enforcement Act, mandates that businesses with 10 or more employees must provide a “clear and responsible” warning label for all products that Californians purchase, in their homes or workplaces, or that are released into the environment. This also prohibits businesses in California from disposing of these listed chemicals into local water sources.
Businesses must also cease the utilization of listed chemicals in those same sources of drinking water. That mandate is enforced 20 months after each listing.
The following examines the various requirements for these labels and how affected businesses can remain compliant.
Prop 65- The 2018 Amendment
Prop 65 was officially written into law in November 1986, when voters in California approved it by a 63-37% margin. The current revised version of Prop 65 has gone into effect as of August 2018.
The newly amended Prop 65 mandates specific warning methods and content for several types of products. This includes food items, diet supplements, alcohol, and furniture. It also provides for specific types of exposures, such as eateries, dentist offices, wood dust, diesel engines, interior parking structures, amusement parks, gas stations, and hotels.
There are exemptions:
- Government organizations,
- public water utilities, and
- businesses with fewer than 10 employees do not fall under the mandate of Prop 65 warning labels for 2018.
Exposures that pose a zero cancer risk, that contain listed chemicals that naturally occur in edible items, and cause no reproductive effect, as well as discharges that do not provide a “significant amount” of a listed chemical, are also exempt.
Prop 65 Warning Label Size Requirements
New requirements include a warning label to be on any consumer product. Prop 65 warning label size requirements are as follows:
- Letters and characters have to be rendered in a minimum 6-point type. It cannot be any smaller than the largest font size utilized in other consumer products.
- The warning must feature an exclamation point in black outlined by a yellow triangle, and the word “WARNING” must also be featured and printed boldly in capital letters.
- The warning has to feature the full name of a listed chemical a minimum of one time.
If the warning is included on a product, a short-form warning is allowed and does not need to feature the name of the listed chemical, however, the other requirements must be met.
Any qualifying consumer product made available over the internet has to feature a warning on the associated website that informs the buyer before the purchase. These products should also feature a short-form warning on the product or a long-form warning on the label that adheres to the requirements.
If any of these product labels or packaging provides consumer information in a non-English language, the Prop 65-compliant warning has to be provided in that language, as well as in English.
Though the number of regulations laid out in this proposition, new and old, may seem daunting. Your business can easily satisfy the warning label mandates of Prop 65 with the right printing partner.
Contact us to learn more about Prop 65 warning label size requirements or to request a quote on label printing!