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members are appointed by the Governor and are designated as the “State’s Qualified Experts” for
evaluating chemicals under Proposition 65. When determining whether a chemical should be placed on
the list, the committees base their decisions on the most current scientific information available. OEHHA
staff scientists compile all relevant scientific evidence on various chemicals for the committees to review.
The committees also consider comments from the public before making their decisions.
A second way for a chemical to be listed is if an organization designated as an "authoritative body" by the
CIC or DART Identification Committee has identified it as causing cancer or birth defects or other
reproductive harm. The following organizations have been designated as authoritative bodies: the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA), National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, National Toxicology Program, and International Agency for Research on
Cancer.
A third way for a chemical to be listed is if an agency of the state or federal government requires that it
be labeled or identified as causing cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm. Most chemicals
listed in this manner are prescription drugs that are required by the U.S. FDA to contain warnings relating
to cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm.
In addition to these three listing procedures, Proposition 65 also requires the listing of chemicals meeting
certain scientific criteria and identified in the California Labor Code as causing cancer or birth defects or
other reproductive harm. This method was used to establish the initial chemical list following voter
approval of Proposition 65 in 1986.
What requirements does Proposition 65 place on companies doing business in California?
Businesses are required to provide a "clear and reasonable" warning before knowingly and intentionally
exposing anyone to a listed chemical. This warning can be given by a variety of means, such as by
labeling a consumer product, posting signs at the workplace, distributing notices at a rental housing
complex, or publishing notices in a newspaper. Once a chemical is listed, businesses have 12 months to
comply with warning requirements.
Proposition 65 also prohibits companies that do business within California from knowingly discharging
listed chemicals into sources of drinking water. Once a chemical is listed, businesses have 20 months to
comply with the discharge prohibition.
Businesses with less than 10 employees and government agencies are exempt from Proposition 65’s
warning requirements and prohibition on discharges into drinking water sources. Businesses are also
exempt from the warning requirement and discharge prohibition if the exposures they cause are so low
as to create no significant risk of cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm. Health risks are
explained in more detail below.
What does a warning mean?
If a warning is placed on a product label or posted or distributed at the workplace, a business, or in
rental housing, the business issuing the warning is aware or believes that one or more listed chemicals is
present. By law, a warning must be given for listed chemicals unless exposure is low enough to pose no
significant risk of cancer or is significantly below levels observed to cause birth defects or other
reproductive harm.
For a chemical that causes cancer, the "no significant risk level” is defined as the level of exposure that
would result in not more than one excess case of cancer in 100,000 individuals exposed to the chemical
over a 70-year lifetime. In other words, a person exposed to the chemical at the “no significant risk level”