California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Attorneys General from eight other states sent a letter to Congress earlier this week to voice their opposition to the proposed Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA), or S.1009, in its current form. The CSIA was proposed last month as an amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
The Attorneys General wrote to...
On November 15, 2012, Peter Englander, a TCG client, obtained approval of a first-of-its-kind settlement with Accoutrements, a seller of bandages and other products, in which Accoutrements agreed to reformulate its plastic adhesive bandages to be free of phthalates, chemicals known to cause reproductive harm. While Accoutrements has agreed to pay civil penalties under...
In her ongoing efforts to protect the public in California against exposure to carcinogenic chemicals found in flame-cooked hamburgers, Dr. Whitney Leeman, a client of The Chanler Group, has recently issued a dozen new 60-Day notices for restaurants and stores that serve flame-cooked burgers found to contain such chemicals. Dr. Leeman expects to serve additional notices to...
On October 23, 2012, a court approved a ground-breaking settlement involving garden tools, hand tools, and kitchen utensils in a case brought by Russell Brimer, Peter Englander, and John Moore, clients of TCG. Sixteen consumer manufacturers have agreed to reformulate the grips on the tools and utensils to eliminate the presence of certain chemicals known to cause reproductive...
On October 2, 2012, Dr. Anthony Held, a TCG client, obtained approval of an unparalleled settlement with manufacturers of Halloween costumes, accessories, and décor. Through the settlement manufacturers have agreed to reformulate their products to virtually eliminate the presence of seven chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm including: arsenic, cadmium,...
On September 27, 2012, having previously approved an unprecedented settlement obtained by TCG clients Dr. Anthony Held and John Moore from more than 100 manufacturers, distributers, and retailers of fashion accessories, the San Francisco Superior Court approved the plaintiffs' recovery of $2.3 million in attorneys' fees after finding the amount was reasonable under...
Does the California Attorney General's Office have the power to unilaterally rewrite state law to require that Proposition 65 plaintiffs provide a whopping 45 days' notice for motions to approve settlements, instead of the statutorily allowed 16 days' notice? Dr. Anthony Held, Russell Brimer, and John Moore, clients of TCG, have challenged the Attorney General'...
Beginning in late-2005, Dr. Whitney Leeman, a client of The Chanler Group, began investigating risks to human health from cancer-causing chemicals found in flame-cooked hamburgers sold in restaurants. When meat is cooked over an open flame, chemicals called polycyclic—pronounced polly ∙ sigh ∙ click—aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs for short, are formed. ...
In early July 2012, Dr. Whitney Leeman, a client of TCG, began issuing Proposition 65 notices to restaurants and resorts selling flame-cooked burgers containing chemicals known to cause cancer. These efforts are a continuation of Dr. Leeman's ongoing work, which she commenced more than seven years ago, to reduce or eliminate toxins in flame-cooked burgers.
It was in late...
On July 25 2012, in a case brought by Dr. Anthony Held, a client of TCG, involving allegations of phthalates in pedicure and manicure kits, the Marin County Superior Court denied Defendant Kiss Nail's motion for summary judgment, finding that Kiss's scientific expert failed to provide an evidentiary basis for his opinion.
At the same hearing, Dr. Held obtained further...
