A federal court in California has temporarily blocked enforcement and legal actions brought under California’s Proposition 65 law claiming personal care products failed to include on their labels required safety warnings related to certain forms of titanium dioxide (TiO2).
The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) challenged the labelling requirement because the First Amendment of the US Constitution protects against “government-compelled speech that is not purely factual”. The court preliminarily found that such warnings on personal care products were “not purely factual because they tend to mislead the average consumer.” In this case the warning labels could mislead consumers to believe that TiO2 can cause adverse health effects in humans. The science relied on by the State of California does not support that conclusion.
This injunction will temporarily prevent future lawsuits against personal care product manufacturers alleged to be out of compliance with exposure warning requirements for TiO2 until a trial on the merits of the case or some other resolution is concluded.
Health authorities across the world, including the WHO, have confirmed the safety of TiO2.
