Held v. ICUP, Inc.

On July 14, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D, P.E. and settling party ICUP, Inc. (“ICUP”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Held had alleged that ICUP sold drinking cups with vinyl/PVC sleeves 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, ICUP agreed not to sell any drinking cups with vinyl/PVC sleeves in California after August 15, 2015, unless the cups contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or bear Proposition 65 warnings specified in section 2.3 of the agreement.  Should ICUP provide Held with written certification by December 1, 2015 that all drinking cups with vinyl/PVC sleeves 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 $38,500, 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.