Englander v. United Exchange Corporation

On September 19, 2012, citizen enforcer Peter Englander and settling defendant United Exchange Corporation ("UEC") entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved Englander's allegations that UEC sold bandages containing the phthalate chemicals di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") and di-n-butyl phthalate ("DBP") in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, UEC agreed not to sell any bandages in California after September 17, 2012, unless the bandages contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP and DBP when analyzed using state and federally approved testing methodologies or have Proposition 65 warnings provided pursuant to Section 2.1 of the Settlement Agreement. Additionally, by October 17, 2012, UEC agreed to provide its then-current vendors with the reformulation standards and instruct them to use its best efforts to provide only reformulated bandages. Should UEC eliminate the need for Proposition 65 warnings on the bandages by April 1, 2013, Englander agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $84,800, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, funds for the Silent Spring Institute to aid its research about the links between exposure to environmental chemicals and reproductive and developmental harm, and compensation to whistleblower Englander and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.