Description

California Proposition 65 takes its origin from a regulation introduced in California in year 1986 through a citizen’ initiative and having the purpose to safeguard the quality of water (Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act). California Proposition 65 has been released to inform the citizens about their eventual exposure to a number of hazardous/poisonous chemicals which have been recognized as potentially carcinogenic or teratogenic by the State of California.

The law enforcement is granted by a State Agency of the State of California called Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), which has the duty to update the list of those dangerous chemicals. In the current list there are about 850 chemicals, most of which could be present in many daily-use items such as solvents, drugs, preservatives, plastics, just to mention a few. That list is frequently reviewed.

It is important to underline that California Proposition 65 does not forbid the use of chemicals which are considered dangerous for the human’s health by the State of California, but it just imposes that the end-users have to be duly informed through some notice as directly specified on the regulation law. Then, the objective of California Proposition 65 is that the end-users have to be put in a position to consciously decide for themselves or not to undergo to chemicals which are potentially harmful. 

Emak has decided to apply a “California Proposition 65” warning label on its products. Why?

A company with over ten employees active on the market in California, has to comply with the California Proposition 65, which means: 

1- it does not have to deliberately spill into drinking water sources those chemicals which are present in the list

2- it has to provide with an “appropriate and clear” warning notice before anybody’s exposure to any of the chemicals of the list

A California Proposition Prop 65 warning implies one of the following scenarios: either the Company has evaluated the rate of exposure and has reached the conclusion that it is beyond a “not significant level of risk”, or, without detecting the level of exposure, the Company decides to apply a warning label based on the presence on the product of a chemical which belongs to the list.

Emak has decided to provide with a warning notice based on the presence of one or more chemicals which belong to the list, without trying to detect the level of exposure.

Considering that Emak products are sold not only in the State of California but all over the territory of the U.S.A., it would be extremely complex to pre-determine which products would get just into the State of California. For that reason, it has been decided to apply an utmost cautious behavior and to apply a warning label on ALL the products manufactured by Emak which are addressed to the North American market, according to the criteria of California Proposition 65.

Emak products are safe

The fact that Emak products carry a warning label according to the California Proposition 65 does not mean that their use will cause cancer or reproductive harm. During the use of Emak products, the exposure to chemicals considered as harmful by the State of California can be considered negligible and, in any case, far below the limit of significant risk for which a warning notice is required. However, considering that the concept of exposure is ambiguous and difficult to be detected and measured, to keep an utmost cautious behavior and to perfectly comply with the Law, Emak has nevertheless decided to apply the warning label according to the California Proposition 65. In fact, the State of California declares: “The fact that a product shows a warning label according to California Proposition 65 does not mean that the product itself is dangerous. Then, the California Proposition 65 can be considered more as a regulation about the right of the citizens to be duly informed rather than a pure regulation about the safeness of a product”.