SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A California court has affirmed a judgment that puts a chemical used to soften vinyl on the state’s Prop 65 list as a possible cancer-causing agent, over the objection of the American Chemistry Council.
The Third Appellate District on July 8 released its opinion in favor of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which placed Diisononyl Phthalate (DINP) on the Prop 65 list after a vote to do so from the Carcinogen Identification Committee.
Justice Vance Raye and his colleagues affirmed the process by which DINP landed on the Prop 65 list.
“In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must presume the Committee properly carried out its obligation and followed its own guidance criteria,” Raye wrote.
“Again, the question before us is not whether the record establishes the Committee complied with requirements, but whether the evidence establishes the agency failed to comply.”
DINP is used to soften vinyl for use in flooring, wire insulation, gloves, garden hoses, artificial leather and roofing materials. The committee says it causes cancer in animals in ways that are relevant to humans.
Prop 65 requires cancer warnings about hundreds of chemicals and allows plaintiff lawyers to sue over alleged violations. The California Policy Center says government officials have abused Prop 65 so badly that the public is skeptical about “any chemical that makes the state’s dumb list.”
DINP was added to the list in 2013 despite no studies on human and 12 animal studies. The American Chemistry Council argued the data was presented in a biased manner, but the court ruled against that.
“(T)he decision to list a chemical does not determine whether or not a warning is required,” Raye wrote.
“Under Proposition 65, a business can avoid providing a warning if it can prove that the exposure caused by its product is below the level that will have ‘no significant risk.’”