Englander v. General Foam Plastics Corp., et al.

The parties involved in the case Englander v. General Foam Plastic Corp., et al. executed a Consent Judgment on September 6, 2016.  In this matter, citizen enforcer Peter Englander alleged that General Foam Plastics Corp. and Beckett Corporation (“Defendants”) sold vinyl/PVC tubing containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.  

As part of the agreement, Defendants agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC tubing in California after the Marin County Superior Court approves the Judgment, unless the tubing contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies OR have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Defendants provide Englander with certification by April 1. 2017 that all vinyl/PVC tubing sold in California meets the reformulation requirements as laid out above, Englander has agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty.

The Consent Judgment required settlement payments of up to $57,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Englander and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.