In the News
California Court Blocks Proposition 65 Listing for Styrene
Aug 18, 2009
On August 12, 2009, California Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang issued a tentative ruling blocking California environmental officials from listing styrene, a chemical commonly used in food packaging, from being listed under the State's Proposition 65 law as a chemical "known to the State to cause cancer." On June 12, the Cal/EPA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) proposed listing styrene under Proposition 65 after a California court ruled in February that OEHHA should reference under that law those substances identified in the California Labor Code. The Labor Code includes thousands of substances that are not known carcinogens, including substances such as styrene, for which the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has found less than "sufficient evidence" of carcinogenicity. In her ruling, Judge Chang held that there is no "known" evidence that styrene is a carcinogen.
The legal challenge was filed on July 14 in California State Court by the Styrene Information and Research Center (SIRC). SIRC challenged Cal/EPA's attempt to list styrene under Proposition 65 as a chemical known to the State to cause cancer, citing illegal "underground" standards. California law requires that the State formally adopt appropriate standards through a regulatory process that involves accepting public input through mandatory procedures such as public notice and comment, gaining approval by the Office of Administrative Law, and filing with the Secretary of State.
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly called Proposition 65, requires California's governor to publish a list of chemicals "known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm." Proposition 65 requires businesses to notify Californians through warning labels about significant amounts of the listed chemicals in the products they purchase, that are found in homes or workplaces, or that are released into the environment.