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Colorful plastic toys in children's room

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a final rule in October prohibiting the manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribution in commerce, or importation of toys and child care products containing more than 0.1 percent of five phthalate chemicals. Phthalates make plastics soft and pliable, and are contained in many toys and other products intended for young children. The rule will take effect on April 25, 2018.

Continue Reading CPSC Issues Final Rule on Phthalates in Toys and Child Care Products

Filling in glass of water

For the past several months, Monsanto has been in court challenging California’s decision to add the chemical glyphosate—the active ingredient in its herbicide Roundup—to the Proposition 65 list. It recently faced a setback when the California Supreme Court rejected Monsanto’s request to stay a lower court’s decision to include glyphosate among the 960 chemicals on the list.  California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) wasted no time after the decision and added glyphosate to the list on July 7, 2017. Continue Reading No Delay for Proposition 65 Listing of Glyphosate

US Supreme Court

We’ve been following a series of cases filed against Johnson & Johnson by plaintiffs alleging that using talc caused ovarian cancer.

Since 2009, over 2000 cases have been filed, mostly in Missouri, New Jersey, and California. Missouri has seen four trials: the first three resulted in plaintiffs’ verdicts, but the fourth and most recent resulted in a verdict for J&J.

Often in mass tort litigation, courts allow the parties to have a series of “bellwether trials” to show what is likely to happen in future trials. Rather than preparing to try all cases in a mass tort litigation, the parties can try fewer cases that involve the most contested issues. In Missouri, the bellwether trial plaintiffs are chosen by counsel, with each side taking a turn to select the next plaintiff. Continue Reading Talc Talk – One of These Things (Verdicts) Is Not Like the Others

Filling in glass of water

Monsanto has, at least temporarily, lost its fight to avoid a Prop 65 warning label on its products containing glyphosate, a chemical used in the popular herbicide Roundup. On January 27, 2017, a California judge tentatively dismissed Monsanto’s claims that the State of California unconstitutionally turned to an unelected, European organization to decide whether glyphosate posed a cancer risk. Continue Reading Monsanto Uses the Constitution to Challenge Warning Labels for Herbicide

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On November 29, EPA announced that it will review the hazard and exposure risks caused by asbestos. Asbestos will be one of the first ten substances to be evaluated under the TSCA amendments commonly referred to as the Lautenberg Act. As we have discussed elsewhere, TSCA now requires EPA to produce a risk evaluation work plan for these substances by June 2017 and complete its evaluation within three years following. If EPA determines any of these substances pose unreasonable risks, then EPA must take further action to mitigate any risks. Continue Reading TSCA and Asbestos—a New Approach or One That Reveals the Same Old Problems?

Blank Danger And Hazard Triangle Warning Sign Isolated Macro

After considering them for more than a year, California’s Office of Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has finally issued new “Safe Harbor” warning regulations for Proposition 65. The new regulations intend to provide consumers “more specificity” about the chemical content of products sold in California.  They take effect on August 30, 2018 and are set forth in California Health and Safety Code sections 25600, et seq. Continue Reading California Releases New Prop 65 Warning Regulations

Liquid soap, isolated

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned 19 chemicals found in antibacterial hand and body washes. Included in this list is triclosan, a widely used ingredient in antibacterial soap.

The FDA’s new rule has been in the works for nearly four decades. The FDA proposed its first triclosan regulation in 1978 but never moved forward. Then, in 2013, the FDA called for a re-evaluation of over-the-counter antibacterial products. It asked companies to conduct additional studies and provide information on the safety and effectiveness of their antibacterial products containing any of one of 22 different ingredients. Continue Reading Anti-Anti-Bacterials?

Toxic

On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act into law.  The Act is the first significant change to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act in 40 years and amends the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) methods for reviewing chemical substances before they are marketed and allowed to be used in consumer products.

The Act has several new key features: Continue Reading Toxic Substances Control Act Revised for the 21st Century