Held v. Alert Stamping & Manufacturing, Inc.

Citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Alert Stamping & Manufacturing Co., Inc. (“Alert”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on April 29, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that Alert sold clamp lamps with vinyl/PVC components 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 settlement, Alert agreed not to sell any clamp lamps in California after May 1, 2014, unless the lamps meet the reformulation requirements outlined in Section 2.1 of the Consent Judgment or have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Alert provide written certification by December 1, 2014, and continuing into the future, that all clamp lamps sold in California qualify as reformulated, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $15,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.