Litigation

Sierra Club v. Schwarzenegger / California Chamber of Commerce v. Schwarzenegger: Trial Court Orders ACGIH Reproductive Toxins Added to Proposition 65 List

By Bruce Nye

CalBizLit blogged here on May 15 about the consolidated cases involving the Sierra Club and quite a number of other public interest organizations and unions, the California Chamber of Commerce and the State of California.  The public interest organizations and unions are seeking to expand the Proposition 65 list and to make the process for adding chemicals more dynamic.  The Chamber is trying to achieve the opposite.

    Last month, Judge Freedman in Alameda County Superior Court ruled that the State was required to list all the chemicals identified by reference in Labor Code sections 6382(b)(1) and 6382(d).  As of yesterday, it's Sierra Club et al. 2, Chamber 0.  Judge Freedman ordered that the state must also list all reproductive toxicants on the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' ("ACGIH") list of Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents in the Work Environment ("TLVs").

    In CBL's experience,  there are a lot chemicals that are listed but are encountered so rarely that the impact of their listing is largely theoretical.  What I hope to do soon is talk to some industrial hygienists and find out the extent to which this really makes a difference.  And when I do, I'll report back.

    Update:  The order is here.

Full post as published by CalBizLit on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).