Held v. Kmart Corporation

On January 20, 2011, the San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Kmart Corporation, which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendant Kmart Corporation ("Kmart"), sold children's vinyl bathroom animal toys 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, Kmart agreed not to sell any children's vinyl bathroom toys in California after June 1, 2010, unless the bathroom toys contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.

The Consent Judgment required settlement payments of $18,500, 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.