Food Processors Urge California to Delay New Prop. 65 Rules on Exposure to Beneficial Nutrients in Food
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is considering adopting rules under Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) that
are intended to prevent overexposure to beneficial nutrients in food. The agency’s “Initial Statement of Reasons” for the proposed rules, still in draft, note that “[e]xcessive exposures to some [vitamins and minerals necessary to promote human health] have the potential to cause cancer or adverse reproductive effects.” OEHHA plans to establish the level of a listed chemical that does not constitute an exposure within the meaning of Prop. 65 and thus would not require warnings. Previous drafts indicated that the agency would rely on “Recommended Dietary Allowance” levels, but the most recent version indicates that levels for individual chemicals will be made on the basis of a chemical-by-chemical evaluation. OEHHA has also apparently indicated its intention to address human nutrients and plant nutrients separately.
According to the California League of Food Processors, which has expressed concerns about the draft rules in a comment letter, OEHHA should delay its adoption of the rules until it can show that the plan is “practical, enforceable, based on sound science, and whether it may lead to more, rather than less, expensive and frivolous litigation.” The group cites boron as an example of a chemical that is ubiquitous in fruit and vegetable horticulture. “Once the plant material is harvested, it is virtually impossible to determine whether any boron that might be detected in a can of tomatoes or bag of frozen spinach came from the soil, fertilizer, irrigation water, or all of the above,” the processors note, adding that it would be difficult to prove if the chemical is naturally occurring, and thus exempt from Prop. 65 warning requirements, or would require warnings.
OEHHA will accept additional public comments on the proposal until January 12, 2009. Prop. 65 is the voter-approved California law that requires warnings on products containing chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or present reproductive health risks. See Inside Cal/EPA, December 26, 2008.
