Held v. The Burmax Company, Inc.

On July 8, 2016, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party The Burmax Company (“Burmax”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Held had alleged that Burmax sold vinyl/PVC gloves containing the phthalate chemical diisononyl phthalate (“DINP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Burmax agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC gloves in California after December 1, 2016, unless the gloves contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DINP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, OR have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Burmax provide Held with written certification by December 1, 2016 that all vinyl/PVC gloves sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $33,250, 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.