Held v. Mitsuwa Corporation

Citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Mitsuwa Corporation (“Mitsuwa”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on July 7, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that Mitsuwa sold dried seaweed containing arsenic in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Mitsuwa agreed not to sell any seaweed in California after July 10, 2014, unless the seaweed meets the reformulation requirements outlined in Section 2.1 of the Consent Judgment or contains the Proposition 65 warnings provided in Section 2.3. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $31,000, 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.