You may have seen the following warning associated with our products, as well as on other products purchased from other manufacturers:

"This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm."

This warning may initially seem alarming, but in California you don't have to look far to find it in various venues and restaurants, as well as on a wide range of products produced by very different businesses. These include products like flight cases and racking, to healthcare technology and natural nutritional supplements. These labels were added to ensure compliance with California’s Proposition 65. This law, passed in 1986, is referred to as the "California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986", but more generally referred to as "Proposition 65."

We work hard to make sure that all of our products are safe. A Prop 65 warning doesn't indicate a failure in our manufacturing or our safety standards, but it does indicate that the product has not been independently tested to verify whether or not it falls under the scope of Proposition 65.

To help understand why we've chosen not to implement these tests, it's important to understand the specific requirements around this law and the feasibility of adherence, which can be especially difficult for businesses with a large number of products and product lines.

Proposition 65 is a broad law that applies to any company operating in California, selling products in California, or manufacturing products that may be sold in or brought into California. It mandates that the Governor of California maintain and publish a list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects and/or other reproductive harm. The list, which must be updated annually, includes a wide variety of chemicals that can be found in many everyday items, such as coffee, dyes, solvents, drugs, food-additives, and by-products of certain processes. The purpose of Proposition 65 is to ensure that people are informed about exposure to these chemicals.

Proposition 65 also requires warnings to be placed on any product, product packaging, or literature accompanying a product that contains or may contain any of the 800-plus chemicals that the California Air Resources Board considers harmful. As noted above, many of the elements listed under Proposition 65 have been routinely used in everyday consumer items for years without documented harm.

A warning must be given if the listed chemical is merely present in a product unless a business demonstrates that the exposure it causes poses "no significant risk." With respect to carcinogens, the "no significant risk" level is defined as the level which is calculated to result in not more than one excess case of cancer in 100,000 individuals exposed over a 70-year lifetime. In other words, if you are exposed to the chemical in question at this level every day for 70 years, theoretically, it will increase your chances of getting cancer by no more than 1 case in 100,000 individuals so exposed.

With respect to reproductive toxicants, the "no significant risk" level is defined as the level of exposure which, even if multiplied by 1,000, will not produce birth defects or other reproductive harm. In other words, the level of exposure is below the "no observable effect level," divided by 1,000. (The "no observable effect level" is the highest dose level which has not been associated with observable reproductive harm in humans or test animals.)

A Proposition 65 warning generally means one of two things: (1) the business has evaluated the exposure and has concluded that it exceeds the "no significant risk level"; or (2) the business has chosen to provide a warning simply based on its knowledge about the presence of a listed chemical without attempting to evaluate the exposure. iFixit has chosen to provide a warning based on its knowledge about the presence of one or more listed chemicals without attempting to evaluate the level of exposure, as not all of the listed chemicals provide exposure limit requirements. With our products, the exposure may be negligible or well within the “no significant risk” range. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have elected to provide the Proposition 65 warnings.

You can find more official information on the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's website.