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Comment by pascoej | Hacker News Reader

I know it’s somewhat unpopular because of many things are labeled with insignificant quantities or are treated as a fact of life, but Prop 65 has to be my favorite ballot proposition.

I would rather know what potentially harmful substances are in something and decide if it’s acceptable than not be told at all.

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Prop 65 threshold for level of harm is two orders of magnitude below any effect level (not the harm level, effect) which I’d argue creates so many false notices of harm that most people simply ignore them eroding trust in the government.

Indeed the level is so low that under the law, the daily recommended dose of vitamin A for pregnant women would need a notice saying it caused birth defects. They had to ignore the law and add a caveat for vitamin A since not taking it causes birth defects.

If they didn’t pick an arbitrary threshold, ignoring scientific consensus on what dose makes the poison, it would have been far more successful.

I think there was a prop 65 warning on a box of kreg pocket screws (or was it the jig?).

It might be your preference but prop 65 warnings have basically taught an entire generation that safety warnings are meaningless and can be ignored, which is presumably the opposite of the desired effect.

Here is the list as of 2023 [https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/proposition-65//p65chem...]

23 pages of small print single lined basic lines.

It includes everything from Aspirin, Aloe Vera leaf extract, Oral contraceptives and estrogens, Alcoholic beverages, Leather dust, Chinese style salted fish, to Benzene, Bracken Fern, and hexavalent chromium.

Bracken fern being particularly widespread, but surprisingly contains a highly potent cancer causing chemical that can also get passed to humans in cows milk. [https://aacrjournals.org/cancerpreventionresearch/article/3/...].

There is likely nowhere in the state that shouldn’t technically have a Prop 65 warning on it.

I loved how basically every apt I went in in SF had a "This apt may contain chemicals that may be known to cause cancer by the state of California. At the entrance.

Thanks guys, real useful

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