Held v. Alliance Mercantile, Inc.

Whistleblower Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Alliance Mercantile, Inc. (“Alliance”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on February 10, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that Alliance sold vinyl/PVC gloves 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, Alliance agreed not to sell any gloves in California after March 1, 2014, unless the gloves contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Should Alliance provide written certification that by April 1, 2014, and continuing into the future, all gloves 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 $30,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.