Held v. Jasco Products Company LLC

Whistleblower Anthony E. Held, Ph.D, P.E. and settling party Jasco Products Company LLC (“Jasco”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement on June 15, 2015.  Held had alleged that Jasco sold vinyl/PVC electrical tape 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, Jasco agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC electrical tape in California after April 15, 2015, unless the tape contains less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or bear a Proposition 65 warning pursuant to section 2.1 of the agreement.  Jasco shall also provide the reformulation standards to its vendors and instruct them to provide compliant products expeditiously.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $62,000, 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.