State Warning Label Laws Push Companies to Remove Toxic Chemicals Nationwide
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New research reveals how California’s Proposition 65 chemical warning label law has demonstrated the broader impact of state-level environmental legislation.
A decades-old California transparency law requiring warning labels on products containing harmful chemicals has sparked widespread reformulation of consumer goods across the United States, according to new research.
Nearly 80 percent of businesses have changed their product formulations to avoid warning consumers about toxic chemicals, the new study found.
Impact on Industry Practices
The new study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, demonstrated how laws promoting transparency about harmful chemicals can lead to safer products.Until recently, there has been little research on the effectiveness of Prop 65, with some critics arguing that the law creates too many warnings with little impact on individual behaviors, while others say the law is less effective than outright chemical restrictions or bans, researchers noted.
“We wanted to go deeper and understand to what extent the law has created more systems-level change,” Jennifer Ohayon, research scientist at Silent Spring Institute and lead author, said in the statement.
The researchers conducted interviews with 32 businesses across various sectors, including home improvement, clothing, personal care, cleaning, and health care.
The analysis showed that around 80 percent of interviewees and manufacturers surveyed agreed that Prop 65 has led to both product changes by businesses and identifying chemicals to avoid in manufacturing. Also, more than 60 percent of manufacturers indicated that the law drove product changes even outside of California.
While firms can avoid having to print warnings by reducing harmful chemical levels in their products below a specific threshold, “companies are incredibly reluctant to put a label on a product that says it contains a chemical that causes cancer, and that was the biggest driving force behind their decisions to reformulate,” Ohayon stated.
“By increasing businesses’ awareness of chemicals in the supply chain, Prop 65 has caused them to shift away from using toxic substances, and that’s a positive step for public health.”
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Law’s Effects Ripple
The research also highlighted the law’s broader effects along the supply chain, with major health care institutions encouraging suppliers to use certification programs that ban Prop 65 chemicals in cleaning products.The research is part of broader research into how effectively Prop 65 reduces exposure to toxic chemicals.
“When companies reformulate their products to comply with Prop 65, they tend to apply those changes across all of their products, not just ones sold in California,” Ohayon said.
The findings underscore how, without federal chemical regulations, states, especially large ones like California, are crucial for public health protection, she noted.
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Broader Implications
The new study’s findings have “huge” implications, Aidan Charron, associate director of Global Earth Day, a nonprofit organization that works to mobilize people to protect the planet, told The Epoch Times.“As soon as people are made aware of the potential damage to their health from long-term chemical exposure, the more outraged they will be,” he said.
He advocated for transparency, asserting that informed consumers will demand real change, forcing companies to respond.
He noted California’s historical role as a trendsetter in the U.S., underscoring the importance of its leadership in this area. “The first step to any progress happening is transparency.”
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Protecting Our Environment
Reducing the chemicals in everything we eat, buy, drink, and wear would dramatically improve the safety of our water supply, food chain, and environment, according to Charron. “This is what will protect human health,” he said.Charron noted that manufacturers use more than 16,000 different chemical combinations to make plastics, with some formulations remaining proprietary trade secrets. “So we can’t even be told what they are.”
To understand his own chemical exposure, Charron underwent a toxicity test measuring levels of phthalates and bisphenols (BPAs) in his body.
Despite taking extensive precautions—eliminating plastic utensils and cutting boards, avoiding polyester clothing, choosing unwrapped foods, and completely forgoing single-use plastic bottles—his test results still showed “super high levels of chemicals,” placing him in the top 80th percentile.
“What hope [is there] for the public have who have no idea any of this is happening?”
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