Held v. Easton Sports, Inc.; Easton-Bell Sports, Inc.

On May 28, 2009, the Marin County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Easton Sports, Inc., et al., which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendants Easton Sports, Inc. and Easton/Bell Sports, Inc. (collectively "Easton") sold miniature and regular-sized children's vinyl baseball gloves and other sporting goods containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") and the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement agreement, Easton agreed not to sell any vinyl baseball gloves and other sporting goods in California after March 10, 2009, unless the gloves and sporting goods contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP, butyl benzyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, and less than 300 parts per million of lead when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $44,000, to be 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.