All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On August 20, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced it will launch its electronic pesticide registration system, the California Pesticide Electronic Submission Tracking (CalPEST), on September 24, 2024. The launch of CalPEST will convert its paper-based pesticide registration process to a streamlined electronic system. According to DPR, it is conducting the final stages of testing and has identified areas for improvement in system functionality and security that...

On July 29, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced that it will move forward with an emergency rulemaking package to revise the fees for pesticide registrations and renewals in late August with a proposed effective date of no later than October 1, 2024. DPR states the fee increase is necessary to meet current baseline funding needs and the new positions approved as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-2025 budget. DPR states...

On July 2, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced the release of modifications to its proposed pesticide application notification regulation. DPR states this regulation will support the statewide implementation of what it describes to be a “first-of-its-kind” system that would provide information to the public in advance regarding the planned applications of “restricted material pesticides” used in agriculture. DPR initially proposed the regulation on...

A federal district court recently issued an Order to enjoin enforcement of California’s Proposition 65 warnings related to titanium dioxide in cosmetics and personal care products. This is the third case successfully challenging Prop 65 warnings on First Amendment grounds, with previous cases involving glyphosate and acrylamide, as discussed in our FIFRA blog. These are important cases with implications for companies facing Prop 65 warnings for other substances where the underlying...

On June 14, 2024, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a notice proposing additional changes to its Proposition 65 (Prop 65) Article 6 “clear and reasonable warnings” regulations for “short-form” warnings (Notice). The changes proposed now are to the proposed regulations that OEHHA issued on October 27, 2023. The history of these amendments, dating back to January 2021, are set forth in our memorandum available here. Written comments on the...

On June 12, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California (District Court) issued an Order granting a preliminary injunction brought by the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), which alleged that the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s (OEHHA) requirement for warnings under Proposition 65 (Prop 65) related to titanium dioxide in cosmetics and personal care products violated the First Amendment. The Personal Care Products Council v. Bonta, No....

On May 24, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued California Notice 2024-10 announcing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DPR have made recent policy changes regarding state-specific language on pesticide labels intended to reduce delays related to state-specific uses. As part of DPR’s evaluation process when reviewing a new registration application, DPR may determine there are not sufficient data to support registration of a specific use in...

On April 17, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced the details of its webinar scheduled for Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (PDT). The webinar is to discuss and receive feedback from registrants and other stakeholders on DPR’s intent to increase registration fees to a level that, according to DPR, supports the current and future business needs of the pesticide registration program. DPR states it has determined that current registration fees...

On March 29, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced it will hold a webinar on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (PDT) to discuss and receive feedback from registrants and other stakeholders on its intent to increase registration fees to a level that, according to DPR, supports the current and future business needs of the pesticide registration program. DPR states it has determined that current registration fees are not sufficient to...

On November 7, 2023, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court for the Eastern District of California’s (District Court) June 22, 2020, decision granting summary judgment in favor of Plaintiffs. The Ninth Circuit entered a permanent injunction enjoining the California Attorney General from enforcing Proposition 65’s (Prop 65) carcinogen warning requirement for the herbicide glyphosate. National Ass’n of Wheat Growers et al. v. Bonta (Opinion).The Ninth Circuit found that requiring the...

On October 27, 2023, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a notice proposing changes to its Proposition 65 (Prop 65) Article 6 “clear and reasonable warnings” regulations for “short-form” warnings (Notice). OEHHA first proposed changes to the short-form warning requirements on January 8, 2021, with modifications proposed on December 13, 2021, and April 5, 2022. Industry was harshly critical of OEHHA’s proposal in written comments and during a...

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the release of an enforcement advisory letter on October 17, 2023, to manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of food packaging and cookware, alerting them to their obligations under AB 1200, a recently enacted statute that restricts the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging and imposes labeling disclosure requirements for cookware. Bonta also issued a consumer alert with tips for reducing PFAS exposures. The...

On October 8, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced that he vetoed a number of bills, including AB 727, which would prohibit, by 2026, the manufacture, distribution, or sale of cleaning products that contain intentionally added per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and would apply this ban, by 2028, to floor sealer or floor finish products. Newsom’s veto message notes that the bill is one of three single-product chemical bans passed by the legislature to...

On June 8, 2023, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued Notice 2023-07: Pesticide Registration Program Annual Processing Timelines. Under Notice 2023-07, DPR sets forth its annual report summarizing the past five years of registration and post-registration activities. This includes the number of pesticide product registration and amendment submissions received and processed, and average number of days to complete different types of registration submissions are also...

On November 10, 2022, California filed suit in California Superior Court against the manufacturers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “for endangering public health, causing irreparable harm to the state’s natural resources, and engaging in a widespread campaign to deceive the public.” According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s November 10, 2022, press release, California “alleges that these manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont, knew or should have known that...

On November 3, 2022, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced it reached a settlement agreement with Amazon.com Services, LLC (Amazon) regarding the illegal sale of pesticides in California. According to DPR, its review of Amazon uncovered multiple violations. Among them, it sold unregistered pesticides in California, failed to report and pay required mill assessment fees associated with the sale of registered pesticides in California, and failed to hold a...

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CDTSC) invites stakeholders to two external engagement sessions, on November 1 and November 3, 2022, to share their perspectives on an actionable definition of sustainable chemistry. CDTSC states that stakeholders’ participation and expertise can help refine a draft, consensus definition and set of criteria for sustainable chemistry. According to CDTSC, the draft definition and criteria were developed over the past six months by a...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CDTSC) invites stakeholders to two external engagement sessions, on November 1 and November 3, 2022, to share their perspectives on an actionable definition of sustainable chemistry. CDTSC states that stakeholders’ participation and expertise can help refine a draft, consensus definition and set of criteria for sustainable chemistry. According to CDTSC, the draft definition and criteria...

On May 25, 2022, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced that it will hold three public workshops to collect feedback on the next phase of design and development for DPR’s pesticide application notification system. DPR states that the workshops will be hosted online via Zoom and facilitated by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. Each workshop will follow the same format, including a brief overview of the proposed design for the statewide...

On April 13, 2022, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a Notice of Modification to Proposed Regulation on Safe Harbor Warnings for Glyphosate and Addition of Documents to Rulemaking File (Notice). OEHHA first proposed this regulation by publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on July 23, 2021. OEHHA provided a 75-day comment period on the original proposal and its Initial Statement of Reasons (ISOR), including an extension to file comments until...