The Proposition 65 warning requirements for significant exposures to PFOA will take effect on February 25, 2023. When a chemical appears on the list, businesses have 12 months to comply with warning requirements. Proposition 65 also prohibits companies that do business within California from knowingly discharging listed chemicals into drinking water. Once a chemical is listed, businesses have 20 months to comply with the discharge prohibition.
The latest chemical to be added to the Prop 65 list is perfluorooctanoic acid. This chemical was added based on the “authoritative bodies mechanism” – one of the four ways that chemicals are added to the list. When organizations designated as authoritative bodies formally identify a chemical as causing cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm, that chemical will be added to the Prop 65 list.
In this case, the listing of PFOA (CAS RN 335-67-1) is based on its formal identification by the National Toxicology Program that the chemical causes cancer. PFOA is no longer produced in the US and its production and use worldwide was significantly curtailed with the 2019 ban of the compound under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Al, its persistence in the environment and breakdown of certain other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances result in continued PFOA exposure.”
References
Prop 65 List dated February 25, 2022
Notice of intent to list PFOA
NTP Technical Report on the Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (CASRN 335-67-1) Administered in Feed to Sprague Dawley (Hsd:Sprague Dawley® SD®) Rats
