Wozniak v. Attwood Corporation

Citizen enforcer Paul Wozniak and settling party Attwood Corporation (“Attwood”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement on April 9, 2015.  Wozniak had alleged that Attwood sold boat hooks with vinyl/PVC grips 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, Attwood agreed not to sell any boat hooks with vinyl/PVC grips in California after April 10, 2015, unless the boat hooks contain 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 2.2 of the agreement.  Should Attwood provide Wozniak with written certification by August 1, 2015 that all boat hooks with vinyl/PVC grips sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Wozniak agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement 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 citizen enforcer Wozniak and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.