OEHHA Issues Notice of Intent to Add Acrylamide to Prop. 65 List

California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a notice of its intent to list acrylamide, a chemical formed when certain foods have been cooked at high temperatures, as a reproductive toxicant under Proposition 65 (Prop. 65). According to OEHHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Toxicology Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction have both determined that acrylamide is a developmental, male reproductive toxin. Under Prop. 65, a chemical must be listed when an authoritative body formally identifies the chemical as causing reproductive toxicity and the evidence it considered meets certain sufficiency criteria. Public comments must be submitted by April 27, 2010.

Noting the significant public interest in the chemical, which has been found in baked goods and cooked starchy foods such as potato chips and French fries, OEHHA has also published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would establish “a specific regulatory level having no observable effect for acrylamide.” The proposed maximum allowable dose level would be 140 micrograms per day, a level “700 times greater than 0.2 micrograms per day, which is the cancer No Significant Risk Level for acrylamide” under California law. The comment deadline for this proposal is also April 27. Any request for a public hearing must be made no later than April 12.