Held v. Southern Exchange, L.P.

On April 25, 2016, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party Southern Exchange, L.P. (“Southern Exchange”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Held had alleged that Southern Exchange sold camping cookware 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, Southern Exchange agreed not to sell any camping cookware in California after April 30, 2016, unless the cookware contains less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in each accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Southern Exchange has also agreed to notify its vendors of the reformulation standards and instruct them to comply expeditiously.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $55,000, 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.