The American Chemistry Council sharply criticized modifications to California's Proposition 65 in comments to a state environmental agency earlier this month. 
In January, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined a series of changes to Prop 65, a nearly 30 year-old initiative that requires the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.
The agency proposed requiring companies to list 12 specific chemicals if included in their products, including lead, mercury and phthalates. Current law generally does not require chemicals that qualify under the law to be specifically mentioned in warning labels.
In a letter to the OEHHA, ACC vice president for regulatory and technical affairs Michael Walls wrote that the changes "continue to retain problems such that they will not achieve any of their stated objectives."
He specifically called the 12-chemical "super list" flawed and accused the agency of "cherry-picking" those substances. The letter added that the state does not have the authority to create such a list; Walls urged the agency to withdraw the proposal "in full."
"They will likely make many of the current problems with Proposition 65 worse," Walls wrote. "[T]he proposed regulations will encourage more abusive bounty hunter suits, rather than reduce litigation; the proposal will generate more consumer confusion, not less."
The public comment period for the proposed changes elapsed on April 8; if approved, the new standards would have a two-year phase-in period for companies to conform.
