You may see a product for sale that has a label or notice with a warning similar to the following: California Proposition 65 WARNING: Consuming this product can expose you to chemicals including lead which is known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.
What is a California Proposition 65 warning?
Prop 65 warnings are seen throughout California restaurants, grocery stores, businesses, and commonly found on a wide variety of consumer products. In addition, various internet and mail order retailers have chosen to provide Prop 65 warnings on their websites or in catalogs for all consumers. These warnings are provided pursuant to the California labeling law called Proposition 65, which is meant to notify individuals in California of potential exposures to Prop 65-listed chemicals. It’s important to note; Prop 65 is a right-to-know law; it does not ban the sale of any products that may contain these chemicals.
What kinds of substances fall under Prop 65?
California Prop 65 has listed over 900 chemicals as carcinogens and or reproductive toxicants, including cadmium, mercury, and lead. Certain listed chemicals like lead are widely distributed throughout the environment in air, soil, water, and as a result, these types of chemicals are often naturally found in commonly consumed foods.
Harvested foods naturally contain some amount of heavy metals by nature. Low doses of lead have been found in the soil, plants or water used to grow foods and natural ingredients used in herbal and dietary supplement production. Lead has been named a reproductive toxicant, so Proposition 65 warnings are required on labels for exposures of more than 0.5 μg/day. This safe harbor level of 0.5 μg/day is considered significantly lower than the amount of lead potentially occurring in a normal daily serving sizes of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
Where appropriate, we label items sold to customers in the State of California with Prop 65 warnings to ensure compliance with Prop 65 labeling law. If you are ordering a product from our site that may contain a chemical that is on the Prop 65 list and the ship-to address is in California, you will be notified at checkout that the product can expose you to a chemical that is known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.