Held v. Shin's Trading Company, Incorporated

On February 28, 2012, the Alameda County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Shin's Trading Company, Inc., which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendant, Shin's Trading Company, Inc. ("Shin's"), sold in the State of California cosmetic cases/bags containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Shin's agreed not to sell in California after October 1, 2011 cosmetic cases/bags unless the cosmetic cases/bags contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in each accessible component when analyzed pursuant to state and federally approved testing methodologies.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $36,000, 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.