California Apartment Association

Like the California Apartment Association, Gov. Jerry Brown believes Proposition 65 needs changing.

The Brown administration is joining lawmakers aiming to stop frivolous lawsuits based on the proposition, passed by voters 27 years ago.

Among other things, the proposition requires that businesses with 10 or more employees post warning signs if they suspect cancer-causing chemicals are present.

Although he cited past successes of the law, Matthew Rodriquez, secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency, said Prop. 65 needs updating, from both a scientific perspective and to protect businesses from unfounded litigation.

“Unfortunately, it has been abused in the past by those who have essentially used it to shake down small businesses and generate fees by bringing cases with little or no benefit to public health,” Rodriquez said of Prop. 65 this week, according to this article in the Sacramento Bee.

The secretary said a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gatto helped prompt the administration’s interest in reworking Prop. 65, the Bee article says.

CAA has thrown its support behind both Gatto’s AB 227 and Assemblyman Bill Quirk’s AB 1026.

Gatto’s bill would allow a business that receives a notice for violating the warning provisions of Prop. 65 to correct the violation within 14 days. If the violation is corrected within this period, the business would be shielded from further legal action.

Quirk’s would bill require sufficient evidence that the substance is known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity to be included on Proposition 65’s last if dangerous chemicals.