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California Prop 65

CALIFORNIA PROP 65 - FAQ

You may have noticed that our products have new tags with the California Proposition 65 warning on them. This page answers some of the questions you might have in regards to this warning label.

1. What is Proposition 65?

Also known as “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986”, Proposition 65 is a California law that requires businesses to put warnings on their products to inform their consumers about the possibility that they may be exposed to chemicals that have been determined by the state of California to cause birth defects, reproductive harm, and cancer.

2. What chemicals are deemed harmful under Prop 65?

The chemicals used on our products are also found in the same products used in everyday household items, including containers, cleaners, and solvents.

The list of chemicals compiled by the state of California contains over 900 chemicals that are naturally occurring and manmade substances. More chemicals continue to be added to this list, which can be found on the following link:

https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list

3. Where can I learn more about Prop 65?

You can learn more about Prop 65 on their website: https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/

4. Is your product safe? If so, why does it come with a warning?

Proposition 65 is considered controversial due to its requirement of displaying health-risk warnings for trace amounts of substances scientifically proven to be too miniscule to risk harm to humans. The warning labels may appear alarming, but numerous tests on our products conclude that they meet or exceed the health and safety requirements as defined by the federal government.
In order to comply with Prop 65 regulations, a company must do one of two possible actions:

A. Have every component of every product for every production tested for the 900+ chemicals listed to ensure that they are within the safety limits as determined by the state of California.

B. Place a “Proposition 65, Safe Harbor Warning” on all products to inform consumers that the product they are about to purchase may contain trace amounts of chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.

Although we have done extensive tests for all major materials and constituent parts of our products to ensure that they fall well within the safety limits, it is cost prohibitive and highly impractical to go with option A, especially when new chemicals are constantly being added to Prop 65’s list. Therefore, we choose to add warning tags on every Chala product to comply with the law.

5. What are the safe concentrations of chemicals in the products under Prop 65?

The acceptable concentrations vary by substance. The way that Prop 65 explains how they determine the limits and concentrations can be found on their website:

“For chemicals that are listed as causing cancer, the ‘no significant risk level’ is defined as the level of exposure that would result in no more than one excess case of cancer in 100,000 individuals exposed to the chemical over a 70-year lifetime. In other words, a person exposed to the chemical at the ‘no significant risk level’ for 70 years would not have more than a ‘one in 100,000’ chance of developing cancer as a result of that exposure.

 “For chemicals that are listed as causing birth defects or reproductive harm, the ‘no observable effect level’ is determined by identifying the level of exposure that has been shown to not pose any harm to humans or laboratory animals. Proposition 65 then requires this ‘no observable effect level’ to be divided by 1,000 in order to provide an ample margin of safety. Businesses subject to Proposition 65 are required to provide a warning if they cause exposures to chemicals listed as causing birth defects or reproductive harm that exceed 1/1000th of the ‘no observable effect level.” (3)

 To read more about how the safety concentrations are developed, please read the original article as provided on the OEHHA website using the following link:

https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/proposition-65/general-info/p65plain_1.pdf

6. If I use your products, how likely am I to be at risk for getting cancer/reproductive harm?

As long as our products are used as intended, we believe that such risk is at extremely low odds. The Proposition 65 warning only indicates that there could be the possibility of even trace amounts of chemicals deemed to cause cancer/reproductive harm/birth defects, but does not indicate that a product is in violation of this law. Our quality testing assures that our products are meeting the health and safety standards as set by the federal government before it reaches consumer hands.

7. Is there a chance the chemicals can spread to other places your product comes into contact with?

The amount of chemicals present should only be trace amounts, meaning that they are well within the safety and health standards set by the federal government. The rigid health and safety standards prevent the improbability of chemicals spreading to other surfaces, which would only occur in situations where our products are being handled in ways for which they were not made to be used.

8. How can I lower the risk of the chemicals affecting me?

Please use our products for your everyday outings, work, or whenever you need something fashionable to hold your necessities. Please avoid using our products in ways that are not in accordance to their functions. (Please don't eat our bags.)

9. I don't live in California. Why am I seeing a warning tag for a California law?

We place warnings on all of our products due to practicality. Our products get distributed throughout the United States, so to ensure that the products being shipped to California comply with California Prop 65, we put warning tags on all our products ahead of time. The warning does not necessarily indicate that the product is not compliant with the law. In fact, the presence of the tag indicates that the product is in full compliance with California Prop 65. We performed numerous tests on our products to ensure that they are well within the health and safety standards set by the federal government.

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