Held v. Beaumont Designs, Inc.

Whistleblower Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Beaumont Designs, Inc. (“Beaumont”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on May 15, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that Beaumont sold vinyl/PVC toiletry/cosmetic bags 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, Beaumont agreed not to sell the specific toiletry/cosmetic bags identified in the Settlement Agreement in California after June 10, 2014, unless the bags contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Toiletry/cosmetic bags already existing in inventory must be sold with warnings provided.  Should Beaumont provide written certification by November 15, 2014, and continuing into the future, that all bags sold in California qualify as reformulated or that Beaumont no longer sells the bags, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $76,000, 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.