Moore v. General Tools & Instruments Company, LLC

Citizen enforcer John Moore and the defendant General Tools & Instruments Company, LLC (“General Tools”) executed a Consent Judgment in Moore v. General Tools & Instruments Company, LLC on June 17, 2013.  In this enforcement action, Moore alleged that General Tools sold hand tools with grips or vinyl/PVC cases containing the phthalate chemicals di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) and di-n-butyl phthalate (“DBP”) and the heavy metal lead in the State of California  without providing the requisite health hazard warnings. 

As part of the settlement, General Tools agreed not to sell any hand tools with grips or cases in California after two days after the court approves the Consent Judgment, unless the tools contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP and DBP and less than 100 parts per million of lead in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or Proposition 65 warnings are provided.  After an interim period of a year, all hand tools must comply with reformulation standards.  Additionally, General Tools agreed to notify its vendors of the reformulation standards and instruct them to provide products that comply by no later than July 1, 2014.  Should General Tools provide written certification that all hand tools sold in California after the Reformulation Deadline, and into the future, qualify as reformulated, Moore agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $115,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Moore and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.