California Prop 65 Warning

CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 65 STATEMENT

By now if you’re a California resident and purchase supplements or thousands of other products in California, we’re sure you’ve seen the Prop 65 warning labels and signs placed everywhere.  These labels are notorious for raising consumer concerns about the product you’re about to consume, even as the products are forced to use them already meet or exceed current regulations to be sold safely and legally.

As with many California regulations, it’s hard to find a straightforward explanation, and Prop 65 continues to change. To better educate our customers, we’re going to do our best to break down Prop 65 so you can draw your own conclusions.

WHAT IS PROP 65?

In 1986, environmental and public health activists persuaded California voters to approve the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, aka Proposition 65 or Prop 65.

Although the intentions behind Prop 65 were to improve public health, very little improvement has actually resulted. It’s questionable whether or not the burden placed on California businesses or businesses selling to California has been worth it.

Prop 65 requires the State of California to identify chemicals that could potentially cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Each new substance that meets this criteria is added to a list managed by the state. At the time of this writing, the list contains over 900 substances and is continually growing. Businesses are required to warn consumers of any possible exposure to any one of the chemicals on the list, despite the actual amount of ingredients or realistic risk of exposure. To accomplish this, businesses are required to post in-store signs and/or warning labels on products.

WHAT INGREDIENTS ARE INCLUDED IN PROP 65?

Currently, there are over 900 substances identified by the State of California as carcinogens and reproductive toxins that require the Prop 65 warning. The Prop 65 list contains a broad range of naturally occurring and synthetic substances that are known by the State of California to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Prop 65 sets a “Safe Harbor” exposure level for a lot of the listed substances and amounts less than the Safe Harbor level require no warning label. Yet, Safe Harbor levels are frequently around 1,000 times lower than levels set by the FDA, EPA and WHO.

In fact, the Safe Harbor levels are so low for many common substances that they’re virtually impossible to not surpass. In most instances, the exposure levels determined by Prop 65 are lower than what occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains, and even drinking water.

For example, take a look at the naturally occurring lead counts in the foods below.

  • Italian salad dressing - 12.2 mcg (24x the Prop 65 limit)

  • Roasted mixed nuts (no peanuts) - 10.2 mcg (24x)

  • Fried beef liver - 9.0 mcg (24x)

  • Dry table wine - 6.8 mcg (16x)

  • Fresh, boiled brussel sprouts - 7.9 mcg (16x)

  • Raw avocado - 4.5 mcg (8x)

  • Raw watermelon - 4.5 mcg (8x)

  • Raw red apple - 2.6 mcg (8x)


CALIFORNIA’S PROP 65 vs NATIONAL STANDARDS

One of the interesting aspects of Prop 65 is how different it is from all of the other national standards set by organizations such as the FDA and EPA. Prop 65 is significantly more strict. This is why it’s virtually impossible to manufacture supplements that don’t contain trace amounts of lead, especially from herbal roots. However, keeping those levels far below the national standards is definitely possible.

SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT INSANE LABZ PRODUCTS?

Our products meet, and typically exceed, federal safety standards and Prop 65 Safe Harbor limits.

For example, the Prop 65 Safe Harbor maximum allowable dose level for lead is 0.5 micrograms per day, but the FDA daily limits are set at 75 micrograms for adults and 6 micrograms for children. Any product in California that might cause someone to be exposed to more than 0.5 micrograms per day requires the Prop 65 warning label. However, most food and supplement products with the Prop 65 warning label are still well under the national limit and only contribute a fraction of the average person’s daily exposure to lead.

WHY DON’T ALL SUPPLEMENTS HAVE A WARNING LABEL?

There are several likely scenarios where a manufacturer might not use a Prop 65 warning label, such as:

  • They believe their products is below Safe Harbor limits.

  • The supplier is unaware of the legal risks of not using the Prop 65 warning label.

  • They plan to start using the label, but haven’t yet.

  • They would rather risk legal fees than scare people with a nasty Prop 65 warning label.

However, due to the confusion and ever changing Prop 65 rules, we have chosen to include the warning label on all products sold in the State of California. All of our ingredients are tested and our safety standards for lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic are all below the FDA standard safety limit.

Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups who make a living suing businesses over Prop 65, currently totally roughly $57 million in settlements. Rest assured that Insane Labz has our customers' best interest in mind. Although we understand Prop 65 has the best intentions at protecting the public, the effect it has had on our business as well as other businesses has become very expensive and time consuming. When you see that warning label, Insane Labz is just trying to comply with Prop 65 and avoid the “trolls” who make a living by suing businesses. Our supplements have and always will be made in a state of the art GMP Certified manufacturing facility using only quality ingredients.

For more information on Prop 65 you can go to www.P65warnings.ca.gov

If you have any questions or concerns about our products, please don’t hesitate to contact us at legal@insanelabz.com. Thanks for being a part of The Asylum!