advocacy
Proposition 65
Overview
Effective August 30, 2018, significant changes to California's Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, took effect. To help you understand your responsibilities to comply with it, PHTA developed a Prop 65 Bulletin. We encourage all members who do business in California to download and review it.
April 2021 Update
PHTA sent out this document in January 2021 noting the proposed Prop 65 changes by the CA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to limit use of the short-form version of the safe harbor warning. Recognizing these proposed changes would be harmful to PHTA members, we reached out to other organizations we thought would have similar concerns, which would also allow us to have a larger voice as a coalition of interested associations, groups, and companies.
There were two comments PHTA and our affiliate, the California Pool & Spa Association, signed onto and that were submitted on March 29 (the updated comment deadline). One was led by the CalChamber and Consumer Brands Association, opposing the proposed amendments and had 119 total entities signed on. The other was led by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), of which PHTA is a member, and had 184 companies and organizations sign on, requesting the withdrawal of the proposed amendments.
An article came out noting industries were urging CA regulators to rescind this proposal. This article came out after the March 11 public hearing where all those who chose to provide verbal comments were opposed to the changes. There were 20 individuals who spoke up against, and not one spoke in favor of these proposed changes.
The points made in the two comments PHTA signed onto, and in the article, provide the detailed reasons why this proposal is poorly timed and quite burdensome and costly for companies who recently spent significant resources when implementing the 2018 changes.
Note that an additional letter has been sent that focuses on the economic impacts and why they will exceed $50 million and thus trigger a SRIA (Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment) analysis for a major regulation.
Next steps: PHTA, as members of both the NAM and CalChamber/CBA coalitions, will be updated as important developments occur, and in turn we will let our members know.
