What is Prop 65 and Why Is It On My Herbs?
Posted by 1st Chinese Herbs on Jun 25th 2018
Prop 65 is an referendum from the state of California in 1986 that has changed over the years and just recently underwent a new change. This Proposition requires all items that contain even 1/1000th of the harmful level of heavy metals like lead to be stickered with a warning saying this product may expose you to whichever chemical is present. These harm levels have been set as standards in the United States, but this California law takes it another step and asks for much lower levels to be labeled with their mandated warning.
While this Proposition is unique to California and found nowhere else, California has a large population so many manufacturers are adjusting how they label their products everywhere. This means that even if you aren't in California you may see this label on your herbs. This label contains a warning text and a yellow triangular warning. It is not illegal to sell these items in California, but they do require the label.
Understandably, this can be very confusing and concerning. The herbs we sell are the very same ones we've always had, just with a new warning label required by the State of California. The levels of lead found in these items is far, far below the harmful level of exposure. We see this exposure to lead at all because herbs are grown in the soil, and soil can pick up trace amounts of it from the surrounding environment.
You may ask why some items don't have these warnings but others do. This is because some well-funded groups have lobbied to be exempt from the warning labels. While this would be ideal for herbs as well since the levels are so low, this is an expensive process and many companies cannot afford the a costly lobbying and legal effort thus they have simply added the labels to their products to avoid legal trouble with the state.
You can see more about Prop 65 labels and the warning itself on our Prop 65 page. If you have more questions about the Proposition itself, the state of California has a great wealth of resources on its pages found at the following links:
www.calepa.ca.gov. or www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food
