On December 6, 2024, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced the final approval of amendments that “will make the Proposition 65 (Prop 65) short form warning more informative to consumers by adding at least one chemical name and providing additional warning options from which businesses can select,” according to an OEHHA news release.
The current amendments were proposed on October 27, 2023, and become effective January 1, 2025. Industry doing business in California is given three years to transition to the new short-form content, which will:
- Make the Prop 65 short-form warning more informative to consumers by requiring the inclusion of the name of a listed chemical.
- Clarify existing safe harbor warning requirements for products sold on the Internet and in catalogs.
- Add signal word options for food warnings.
- Clarify that short-form warnings may be used to provide safe harbor warnings for food products.
- Provide new tailored safe harbor warnings for passenger or off-highway motor vehicle parts and recreational marine vessel parts.
What’s changing?
- Identify a chemical
The amended regulations require the short-form label to specifically identify at least one chemical for which the warning must be provided.
2. Online warnings
Online warnings must include a link to the warnings on www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/, unless the warnings are for a food item.
“Under the amended statute, warnings for products sold only over the internet can be provided in one of three ways: (1) on the product display page; (2) through a clearly marked hyperlink using the words ‘WARNING,’ ‘CA WARNING,’ or ‘CALIFORNIA WARNING,’ that links to the warning; or (3) an otherwise prominently displayed warning provided prior to purchase that the consumer does not have to search for in the general contents of the website. This modification is significant in that it removes the previous requirement that products sold online have both a warning on the website as well as on the product itself,” advises a Lexology article by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.
Additionally, for Internet purchases made before January 1, 2028, the new warning isn’t required to be displayed “until 60 calendar days after the retailer receives written notice that the product may expose consumers to Proposition 65 listed chemicals,” according to Keller and Heckman LLP in Lexology.
3. Food exposure warnings
“The updated regulations explicitly allow short-form warnings to be used on food products in contrast to current regulations that do not allow the short-form warnings to be used on food products,” advises Keller and Heckman.
Short-form food warnings require the use of this link: www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.
4. Tailored warnings
“OEHHA has set forth new tailored safe harbor for the following specific product categories: (1) passenger or off-highway motor vehicle parts exposure warnings; and (2) recreational marine vessel parts exposure warnings. OEHHA states these warnings are intended to provide businesses with compliance flexibility and clarity for these products,” says Bergeson & Campbell P.C.
5. Miscellaneous
“Under the amended regulations, the standard long-form requirements will remain largely unchanged,” the Keller and Heckman article adds.
Companies are given until January 1, 2028, to transition to these amended short-form warning requirements.
“In addition, any products that were labeled with the short-form warning language as the regulations allowed before this transition period expires (January 1, 2028) may continue to be sold indefinitely without the need for relabeling,” continues Bergeson & Campbell. “This unlimited sell-through allowance period is intended to minimize disruption to existing inventory.”
For more information, see: