Californian hazard warning website criticised

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has launched a new website to provide the public with information about the chemicals, products, and places associated with the state’s Proposition 65 law, which requires warning labels on products sold in California if they contain chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

The development is being criticised by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The trade group claims the site contains ‘inaccurate information and offers no simple mechanism for correction’.

‘Chemical makers invest significant resources to study and test the products of chemistry and to thoroughly understand a variety of factors including to what degree individuals are exposed to chemicals, as the mere presence of a chemical is not an indication that there is cause for health concerns,’ the ACC said in a statement.

When the site was first proposed, the ACC suggested that it would duplicate the various resources that already provide similar information for consumers. However, OEHHA spokesman Sam Delson says his office created the site because chemical companies objected to providing this kind of information. ‘We get literally thousands of calls every year from people who see Prop 65 warnings and want to know more about the chemicals and the hazards,’ he tells Chemistry World. ‘It is the companies’ responsibility to provide that information, but often they send them back to us.’