California Prop 65 Labeling Info
Although Vital Earth's vegetal biomass minerals are non-toxic according to Proposition 65 standards for "naturally occurring" substances, we have opted to label all our minerals products according to the requirements for selling products into the State of California. Many manufacturers of 100% natural products have been forced to put California Prop 65 warning disclaimers on their products simply to avoid what is known as legal trolling. Please read on for more information…
What is California Proposition 65? (CA Prop 65)
In 1986 California passed legislation intended to protect the State’s drinking water from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. This legislation came about as a reaction to the massive contamination of ground water originating from a series of oil spills and leaks of potentially toxic chemicals used in manufacturing processes. A list of toxins was compiled and additionally the state required companies to post warnings on any products where consumers could “knowingly and intentionally” be exposed to any of the listed chemicals.
But what started out as a way to protect the citizens of California and hold big business accountable, has warped into something else entirely. Now 30 + years later, unscrupulous law firms are manipulating this protective act and claiming violations of Prop 65 warning labeling on products that have “naturally occurring” ingredients.
These lawyers troll for any natural product sold into California that does not contain a warning label, and then initiate legal action, citing the lack of CA Prop 65 labeling. If targeted by one of these legal sharks, manufacturers are forced to submit to expensive “settlements” to avoid the lengthy court battle required to defend their products.
Natural products are exempt from CA Prop 65, but companies who opted to use this defense have incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses. Rather than face a potential lawsuit, many manufacturers have resolved to simply put the CA Prop 65 Warning Disclaimer on their products as a way of protecting against this unethical practice. For this reason, as a deterrent, we have chosen to CA Prop 65 label all our mineral products. Vital Earth Minerals does NOT have any lead violations and has NEVER paid a settlement fee to anyone.
Unfortunately for consumers, whether or not a product has any actual danger is almost impossible to discern at this point - because so many products are now labelled with the CA Prop 65 disclaimer. Our minerals are completely safe