ERDI Supervisor Course

Proposition 65

Safe Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 – Warnings Required

WARNING: This Dive Right In Scuba product can expose you to certain chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov

We appreciate your decision to purchase Dive Right In Scuba products to provide the best in water experience. We take our job seriously! You may have noticed that our products now show a warning label at point of sale referring to carcinogens and birth defects. You may also have begun to see warnings related to carcinogenic substances or substances causing birth defects prominently displayed in hotel lobbies, hospitals, or other places of business recently. These warnings are required by the State of California, and we believe that an explanation of the California statute legislating the requirement will provide you valuable information regarding the relative risks of the chemicals that may be present in consumer products.

In 1986, the State of California passed the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act; otherwise known as “Proposition 65” or "Prop 65". Prop 65 requires businesses like ours to disclose to individuals the presence of chemicals listed in the Act prior to point of sale. The regulations implementing this Act have been amended over time with the most recent updates will take effect on August 30, 2018. There are more than 900 chemicals on the Prop 65 Chemical List, including many chemicals that are found in components of a wide array of consumer goods or are used to manufacture components that make up consumer goods.

Prop 65 does not establish acceptable concentrations for any listed chemical; however, the agency which enforces it has established what is called "safe harbor" exposure levels for about one third of these chemicals below which warnings are not required. These "safe harbor" are established for listed carcinogens based on the quantity of the chemical that would result in one excess case of cancer in an exposed population of 100,000, assuming lifetime (70-year) exposure at the level in question. A similar process is used to establish safe harbor levels for listed reproductive toxicants. Additional information in plain language on safe harbor levels is available from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment at http://oehha.ca.gov/Prop65/background/p65plain.html

At Dive Right In Scuba, the safety of your in water experience is our highest priority. We go to great effort to select materials that offer superior value, quality, and durability while also being generally recognized as safe and reliable for the full life of the product. Dive Right In Scuba also works closely with many regulatory bodies, such as the US Coast Guard and Underwriter’s Laboratories, to ensure the longevity of your on-water safety through targeted selection of durable, long lasting materials and components that undergo significant validation testing before being used to manufacture end items. Sometimes the safety promise we offer appears at odds with the health and safety requirements of other legislation in certain parts of the world when some regulations are updated ahead of others. To ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements, Dive Right In Scuba has placed a warning on products that contain a Prop 65 listed chemical, either directly or as a part of the raw material supply chain. This allows us to comply with California law and provide our California consumers with the disclosure required by Prop 65, while still promising the safest on water experience possible.

Dive Right In Scuba is working diligently with regulatory bodies and our own manufacturing partners to continue to improve our product performance and reduce the presence of less desirable chemicals. Water is a precious resource we all share that is important to the health and well-being of our planet and all people. Our goal is to continue to enhance your water life experience while reducing our overall impact to the planet and, in particular, its waterways. While it is a bit of a juggling act to achieve, we are confident you will see continued improvement in both the immediate and long term future. We hope this explanation will enable you to understand why you will be seeing warnings on some our products.

Thank you for your continued use of Dive Right In Scuba products.