California Proposition 65: What You Need to Know

Concordance Healthcare Solutions is committed to delivering consistent, customer-focused service. We’re built on over 175 years of combined industry experience through our legacy as Kreisers, MMS and Seneca. Sharing our strengths and expertise, we will continue to add efficiency and ease to the healthcare supply chain.

The following information is provided to educate our employees and customers on California Proposition 65.

What is Proposition 65?
Proposition 65, often referred to as Prop 65, is an initiative that addresses concerns about exposure to toxic chemicals in California. Officially known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, the law requires California to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. Prop 65 does not prohibit or restrict the sale of chemicals on the list, however, by law, a warning is required for listed chemicals unless the exposure is low enough to pose no significant risk. These warnings are intended to help Californians make informed decisions about their exposures to these chemicals from the products they use.

As a result, the supply chain, starting with manufacturers of the products containing chemicals listed in Prop 65, in California, are required to either remove the chemicals from their products or provide a reasonable warning to inform consumers.

What Has Changed in 2018?
New regulations from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), adopted in August 2016, went into full effect late last month. These new regulations changed the safe harbor warnings in several important ways.

The safe harbor warnings under previous regulations simply required businesses to state that the product or location contained chemicals known by California to cause potential cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm. The new regulations mandate the safe harbor warning label revisions; which require manufacturers to use a standardized warning label design on products sold to California consumers. These labels are required to be on the products when the consumer is purchasing from a retail establishment. The warnings now must:

• Contain a symbol with a black exclamation point in a yellow equilateral triangle with a black outline (the symbol can be downloaded here).
• Contain the word "WARNING" in all capital letters and bold type.
• State that the product "can expose" a user to one or more of the listed chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects and/or other reproductive harm. At least one of those chemicals must be identified in the warning by name.
• Include a link to the Prop 65 website, www.P65warnings.ca.gov, operated by the OEHHA.

How Concordance is Addressing Prop 65
In response to Prop 65, Concordance Healthcare Solutions is in the process of:

1. Reaching out to suppliers to stay informed of the items which are coded with a Prop 65 warning.
2. Identifying all items in our ordering platform which are subject to Prop 65.
3. Sharing with our customers to keep you informed.

These 2018 safe harbor requirements standardize the warning label for products sold to the consumer, in California. The products have not changed; they are the same high-quality products which you have purchased previously, through Concordance, manufactured by our vendor partners.