Defense Lawyers Sound Alarm On Prop 65 Rewrite

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is proposing changes to the state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, widely known as Proposition 65. Attorneys from Crowell & Moring look at the proposed reform from a defendant viewpoint and find that manufacturers, importers and retailers would incur “potentially devastating costs and new resource burdens if the proposals are enacted,” and with little or no benefit to consumers. One problem: There is no exemption for resellers, and even Goodwill and The Salvation Army will feel the bite. “Without an exemption,” they write, “California’s resale industry will be crushed between the choice of testing every item or litigating failure to warn claims.”