Brimer v. A&W Bottling Company, Inc., et al.

On October 23, 2007, the Alameda County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Brimer v. A&W Bottling Company, Inc., which resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer’s allegations that the defendant A&W Bottling Company, Inc. (“A&W”) sold glass bottles with painted exterior decorations containing the heavy metal lead on the exterior in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings. 

Since June 2, 2006, A&W ceased all sales of glass soda bottles with painted exterior decorations into California.  As part of the settlement, A&W will undertake good faith efforts to provide Proposition 65 warnings on the glass soda bottles sold prior to August 23, 2007.  After August 23, 2007, all glass soda bottles sold by A&W in California shall contain no more than .06 percent lead by weight in the decorations and no more than .02 percent lead in the lip-and–rim area when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Due to A&W’s efforts to retrieve glass soda bottles from California at its own expense upon learning that the bottles may contain lead, Brimer agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $38,000, to be divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Brimer and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.