California Court Blocks Listing Of Styrene

A state appeals court has blocked California’s proposed listing of styrene and vinyl acetate as carcinogens under the Safe Drinking Water Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known as Proposition 65. The Oct. 31 decision by a three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento upholds a 2009 ruling by a trial court that prevented the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment from adding the two chemicals to the Proposition 65 list. The appeals court held that the state failed to provide sufficient evidence that the chemicals are “known” to cause cancer. “We are pleased that the appellate court affirmed the original ruling on the impropriety of the proposed styrene listing ... which would have resulted in unnecessary and unwarranted public alarm,” says Jack Snyder, executive director of the Styrene Information & Research Center, one of the industry groups that challenged the listings. Proposition 65 prohibits the release of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water and requires businesses to provide warning labels on products that contain a listed substance.