California Panel Declines to List BPA as Carcinogen under Prop 65

The California Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) rejected the listing of bisphenol A (BPA) as a carcinogen under Proposition 65 (Prop 65) at its December 14, 2022, meeting. (More information on that meeting can be found here.)

Prop 65, also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, prohibits, among other things, knowingly exposing any individual to a listed chemical without first providing a “clear and reasonable warning” to such individual. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) maintains this list in its role as the lead agency for implementing Prop 65, and CIC advises OEHHA and serves as the state’s qualified expert for determining whether a chemical has been clearly shown to cause cancer.

OEHHA had selected BPA for consideration for listing by CIC, and the Committee recommended that BPA be placed in the “high” priority group for future listing consideration at its November 2020 meeting. OEHHA solicited comments on BPA’s potential as a carcinogen in January 2022, and published a report titled, Evidence on the Carcinogenicity of Bisphenol A (BPA), in September 2022. The vote by CIC to not list BPA as a carcinogen under Prop 65 was six (opposed) to five (in favor). BPA has been otherwise listed as a reproductive toxicant on Prop 65 since December 2020. (See the Packaginglaw.com article, California Relists BPA as a Reproductive Toxicant Under Prop 65, for more information on that listing.)