Held v. Fieldston Clothes, Inc.; S. Rothschild & Co., Inc.

On February 18, 2010, the San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Fieldston Clothes, Inc.; S. Rothschild & Co., Inc., et al., which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendants, Fieldston Clothes, Inc. and S. Rothschild & Co., Inc. ("Fieldston and Rothschild"), sold children's vinyl zipper pulls on children's apparel items 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, Fieldston and Rothschild agreed not to sell any children's vinyl zipper pulls in California after November 6, 2009, unless the products contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $38,200, 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.