California Proposition 65: Reformulation of DINP in Consumer Products

Several Prop 65 settlement agreements have been reached for DINP in a variety of products. Many of these allow a Prop 65 warning as an alternative.

SAFEGUARDS | Consumer ProductsNO. 004/21

California Proposition 65 (Prop 65) is the 'Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986', a ballot initiative passed overwhelmingly by Californian residents in November 1986. It requires the state to publish a list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects and/or reproductive harm. First published in 1987, the list has evolved to approximately 900 chemicals.

Diisononyl phthalate (DINP) has been on the Prop 65 list of chemicals since December 2013, as a chemical known to cause cancer. Sources of this chemical may include products containing plastics/polymers such as adhesives, automobile interiors, cables, inks, footwear, gloves, lacquers, paints, pigments, PVC flooring materials, tubing and sealants

In December 2016, the California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a Safe Use Determination (SUD) for professional flooring installer exposures to DINP from vinyl flooring products containing no more than 8.7% DINP by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute member companies. These vinyl flooring products are available as sheets or tiles that are used in residential (e.g. homes and apartments), commercial (e.g. offices, retail stores and hotels) and institutional (e.g. schools and hospitals) buildings and can be installed by both do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers as well as flooring professionals.

In the last few years, enforcement actions against businesses that fail to warn consumers about exposure to DINP have resulted in settlement agreements involving a wide range of products. These include, inter alia, brush sets, cell phone wallets, desk pads, electronic accessories, photo albums, rubber gloves and shoe flats (SafeGuardS 111/18 and 38/20)

Since the publication of Safeguard 38/20, several Prop 65 settlements for DINP-containing consumer goods have been reached and are summarized in Table 1. It is interesting to note that many of these allow a Prop 65 warning as an alternative to reformulation.

Entry	Scope	Reformulation/Warning for lead
1	Activity gyms (bedding platform with overhanging toys for young children)	≤ 0.1% otherwise warning
2	Boarding pass holders/bags	≤ 1,,000 ppm otherwise warning
3	Car dusters	≤ 0.1% otherwise warning
4	Circular knitting needles	< 0.1% otherwise warning
5	Electric oil diffusers	< 0.1% otherwise warning
6	Grass shears with cover	< 0.1% otherwise warning
7	Journals	≤ 1,000 ppm otherwise warning
8	Multimeters	≤ 0.1%
9	Stamp sets	< 0.1% otherwise warning
10	Watch bands	< 0.1% otherwise warning
11	Water ski buoys	< 0.1% otherwise warning
12	Wrenches	≤ 1000 ppm otherwise warning

Table 1

A Prop 65 settlement is a consent agreement between the parties named in the settlement and a party not named in a settlement is not bound by that settlement.

Throughout a global network of laboratories, SGS offers comprehensive testing, product assessment and consultancy services related to California Proposition 65 to help you manage risk in your supply chain for consumer goods such as DIYs, electrical and electronics, hardgoods products, juvenile products, and textile & toy products. In the end, it's only trusted because it's tested. Contact us for more information or visit our website.

For enquiries, please contact:

Hingwo Tsang
Global Information and Innovation Manager
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