Held v. Aurora Wholesalers, LLC

Whistleblower Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Aurora Wholesalers, LLC (“Aurora”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on March 31, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that Aurora sold vinyl/PVC football flags containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Aurora agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC football flags in California after April 30, 2014, unless the flags contain less than 100 parts per million of lead in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Should Aurora provide written certification that by June 1, 2014, and continuing into the future, all vinyl/PVC football flags 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 $29,500, 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.