OEHHA announces changes to Proposition 65 short-form warning format

• By: AHPA
• On: 12/12/2024 05:49:19
• In: AHPA News

December 12, 2024

Marketers will need to identify at least one listed chemical in short-form warnings
 

On December 6, 2024, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced the finalization of revisions to the Proposition 65 regulations for Clear and Reasonable Warnings – Safe Harbor Methods and Content. The revised regulations amend the format of the safe harbor “short-form” warning option, with the primary change to require the inclusion of at least one Proposition 65 listed chemical name in the warning. The effective date of the new regulation is January 1, 2025, with a three-year implementation period.
 
Of interest to marketers in the herbal products industry who may be using the short-form warning format, the changes also include the following provisions:

• Businesses that currently rely on the existing short-form warnings have three years to transition to the new short-form content;

• Short-form warnings may be used to provide safe harbor warnings for food products;

• During the three-year implementation period, retailers have a 60-day transition period to update online short-form warnings after receiving a notice from a manufacturer.

 
OEHHA initiated the process of revising the regulations pertaining to the safe harbor short-form warning format in January 2021, at that time stating that “there has been widespread use of short-form warnings in ways that were not intended and do not further the purposes of Proposition 65.” The proposed regulation underwent several changes following public comment periods. AHPA submitted comments to the draft regulations, stating its concerns about the financial costs to the natural products industry of having to revise labels to include a chemical name and the lack of substantiation that the changes to the short-form warning format would have a significant impact on OEHHA's concerns about “over-warning.” 
 
AHPA maintains several guidance documents related to Proposition 65, which have been updated to reflect the amendments to the safe harbor short-form warning format. These guidance documents are available for download from the AHPA website as a benefit of AHPA membership.