Proposition 65 Advisory

October 22, 2001

Proposition 65 Advisory 01-X

OEHHA Publishes Proposed Changes to Proposition 65 Regulations

California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the state agency responsible for implementing the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 ("Proposition 65") has issued the first in a series of proposed regulatory amendments it has in store for the 15-year-old statute.

Released on October 5, the first set of proposed changes are not substantive and should have little or no effect on the regulated community. While the revisions affect 32 sections of the implementing regulations, they essentially represent an effort by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to replace outdated terminology and make grammatical corrections.

The changes update references to the Health and Welfare Agency, the precursor to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), and make minor changes such as replacing "article" with "chapter" to refer more accurately to specific regulations. Some sections are relocated, but the substantive content of those sections is not altered.

While these proposed regulatory changes are minor, OEHHA Director Joan Denton has announced that the Office will offer more substantive revisions in a series of regulatory amendment packages over the next several years. Earlier this year, OEHHA staff members held meetings with the regulated community, the Attorney General's Office, and environmental groups to solicit suggestions on revising the entire body of Proposition 65 regulations. On releasing the draft regulations earlier this month, OEHHA indicated that areas targeted for overhaul in the future could include the regulations governing warnings, authoritative bodies, and when a prohibited "discharge" occurs.

The draft regulations can be found at www.oehha.org. OEHHA will conduct a public workshop for input on the regulatory amendments on November 2, 2001, in Sacramento.

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