A woman came into our office on Friday with a concern regarding a food item from a local grocery store and the warning the item had listed on its nutritional facts.
The warning label said ‘California Proposition 65 Warning: Cancer and Reproductive Harm.’ We’re all used to looking at labels that mention nut or soy allergies and ingredients you can’t hardly pronounce, but this warning caught me off guard because I had never seen one like that before. Chances are, I have bought something at least once with that label and never noticed it or thought to even look.
This particular food item was a bag of spring rolls, unsure of the brand and I do not wish to mention the grocery store from where it was spotted.
So, a little about California Proposition 65:
‘Proposition 65 requires businesses to provide warnings to Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. These chemicals can be in the products that Californians purchase, in their homes or workplaces, or that are released into the environment. By requiring that this information be provided, Proposition 65 enables Californians to make informed decisions about their exposures to these chemicals.
Proposition 65 also prohibits California businesses from knowingly discharging significant amounts of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water.
Proposition 65 requires California to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. This list, which must be updated at least once a year, has grown to include approximately 900 chemicals since it was first published in 1987.
Proposition 65 became law in November 1986, when California voters approved it by a 63-37 percent margin. The official name of Proposition 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.
If a warning is placed on a product label or posted or distributed at a workplace, a business, or in rental housing, the business issuing the warning is aware or believes that it is exposing individuals to one or more listed chemicals.
By law, a warning must be given for listed chemicals unless the exposure is low enough to pose no significant risk of cancer or is significantly below levels observed to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.’- Taken directly from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment website. And yes, the food item was right here in Texas, so it’s not just in California.
If you look at the photo, the ingredients list is pretty simple, so exactly what is it about the product that made the warning label necessary? The water? Seriously?!
It’s hard, and not to mention inconvenient, to have to look at every single label of every single consumable you buy, but as part of the “New Year, New Me” mentality, let’s start with taking care of our bodies and closely paying attention to what we’re ingesting. That minor inconvenience of taking just a little bit more time grocery shopping could be what saves you a ton of health issues now and in the future.
For more information about California Proposition 65 and the list of chemicals that are known to be potentially harmful included in the Proposition, visit oehha.ca.gov.
