California’s warning labels about chemicals have actually cut the toxins in our bodies, study says
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- Is Proposition 65 working? A new study says yes.
- Firefighters continue to make progress in the battle against a devastating blaze in Ventura County.
- Whom did your neighborhood vote for? You can see by popping your address into our interactive election results map.
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper.
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Is Prop. 65 working? Here’s what a new study reveals
It’s hard to miss the warning signs posted at businesses and placed on consumer products in California — something like: This product can expose you to chemicals including arsenic, which is known to the state of California to cause cancer.
Californians see those signs posted in parking garages and theme parks, or affixed to products like vinyl-covered Bibles or cat litter.
We see those warnings because of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, passed as Proposition 65, to alert the public to some 900 chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.
In the decades that followed, business groups and policymakers debated the efficacy of Proposition 65. Does it actually protect Californians from the chemicals it sought to — or is it just an easy paycheck for plaintiffs’ attorneys?
A new study published last month in Environmental Health Perspectives offers evidence that the state law has reduced exposure to toxic substances among Californians — and the U.S. population overall.
The study “suggests the law helped to reduce exposure to toxic substances commonly found in diesel exhaust and plastic materials,” Times environmental reporter Tony Briscoe explained this week.
Researchers from the nonprofit health-research organization Silent Spring Institute and UC Berkeley examined blood and urine samples collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzing concentrations of 11 chemicals from before and after they were placed on the Proposition 65 warning list.
They found “significant decreases” of the chemicals in the majority of samples after they’d been added to the warning list.
What’s more, the reductions weren’t limited to Californians. Samples from across the nation showed reductions in the toxic substances, though “Californians generally had lower levels of biomonitored chemicals than the rest of the U.S. population,” the researchers noted.
One reason the state policy is having an effect elsewhere: The regulation led some companies to reformulate products on the Proposition 65 list in order to avoid warning labels altogether. Researchers interviewed some manufacturers, who said it wouldn’t make sense to change their formula in one state but not the 49 others.
“Our findings suggest that increased scientific and regulatory attention, as well as public awareness of the harms of Prop. 65-listed chemicals, prompted changes in product formulations that reduced exposure to those chemicals nationwide,” the authors wrote.
Researchers also found “Californians had lower concentrations … for many of the diesel-related chemicals included in this study” compared to the rest of the U.S. population.
The reason why, researchers surmised: California’s nation-leading emissions standards.
“California’s rules set the state on a different path than the rest of the country,” the study states, “such that by 2014, diesel engines in California were producing less than half the emissions than would be expected if the state had followed the same trajectory as the rest of the nation.”
Though, as Tony explained in an article last week, the incoming Trump administration may put the state’s clean air initiatives in jeopardy.
Researchers did note a few limitations of their study, including that the majority of the 850 or so chemicals on the Proposition 65 list are not measured in blood or urine samples. The authors suggest more funding for federal and state biomonitoring programs “could enable future researchers to draw more definitive policy-relevant conclusions.”
The study did note that state residents had “higher mean concentrations” of four chemicals compared with the overall U.S. population: styrene, acrylonitrile, cadmium and mercury.
The study didn’t theorize about the first three chemicals, but as for mercury, it offered a couple of reasons why Californians might have more of the substance in their bodies.
“Fish consumption is known to drive exposure, and fish consumption is higher in California than in noncoastal areas of the United States,” they wrote. “In addition, California’s heavy historical use of mercury in mining continues to contaminate surface waters, creating additional routes of exposure.”
One subject I’ll be looking for more research on: Do Californians have higher levels of styrene because of the high concentration of automobiles, a result of our dependence on cars?
Styrene is a synthetic rubber used to make tires. When we drive, the chemical is released into the air, soil and water as toxic microplastics, which we’re ingesting and breathing in.
With roughly 35.7 million registered motor vehicles in the state, it’s not much of a leap to think that those hundreds of millions of tires’ worth of styrene emissions affect the levels of the harmful pollutant in our system (a problem electric vehicles could actually make worse).
You can read more about the Proposition 65 study in Tony’s latest story.
Today’s top stories
Mountain fire
- Firefighters continue to make progress in the battle against a devastating blaze in Ventura County that has destroyed more than 130 structures — most of them homes.
- The Mountain fire destroyed the Camarillo Heights neighborhood but not its residents’ resolve.
- The fire’s devastation is shown in before-and-after satellite photos.
- Her house burned to the ground. But firefighters saved something precious.
Election and politics
- ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ and climate change denial: California braces for a Trump environment.
- Whom did your neighborhood vote for? Explore our interactive election results map.
- Where empowered MAGA Republicans are serious about helping working families, Sen.-elect Adam B. Schiff tells Times political columnist Mark Z. Barabak “they’ll find a willing ally.”
Crime and public safety
- The L.A. County registrar’s Norwalk headquarters was the latest target in a string of bomb threats on vote counters and polling centers.
- Security at LAX popped open a student’s suitcase and found her clothes soaked in meth, officials said.
- A Rolls-Royce driver is being sought in a multi-car collision that injured four people in Van Nuys.
- One person is dead and three others are in critical condition after suspected drug overdoses in Anaheim.
- A San Francisco man was arrested in connection with shooting incidents near UC Berkeley.
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Commentary and opinions
- George Skelton: There’s lots of blame to go around for Harris’ dismal finish, including blunders by Obama and Biden.
- Jackie Calmes: Donald Trump and our disappearing checks and balances.
- Guest opinion: What did the Asian American vote this year tell us?
- Times Editorial Board: This election showed L.A. voters are fed up with City Hall corruption and scandal.
- Times Editorial Board: Abortion was on ballots across the country in this election. The results are encouraging.
This morning’s must read
Spirit Air, cramped hotels, In-N-Out: Police say Chicago hit men killed in L.A. on a budget. The alleged assassins behind several recent murder-for-hire cases in Los Angeles were sloppy, authorities say, leaving behind a trail of evidence that links the killings to Chicago gang disputes.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your downtime
Going out
- ⏰ Catch “Back to the Future: The Musical” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.
- 🥙 Enjoy Dubai chocolate bars, falafel and magic chicken on a Little Arabia food crawl in Orange County.
Staying in
- 🍳 Get weird and wonderful with Matty Matheson’s newest cookbook.
- 🥓 Here’s one of Matheson’s recipes: Brussels sprouts with bacon, mint, pistachio, fish sauce and pickled-pepper caramel.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.
A question for you: What books, movies, TV shows, songs or works of art have inspired you?
Feel free to email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might be included in the newsletter this week.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.
Today’s great photo is from Doug Martin of Los Angeles: Catalina and its famed island bison.
Doug writes: “This is probably the only place that bison can see the ocean. This handsome fellow is enjoying the magnificent view on the back of Catalina Island, looking west.”
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Amy Hubbard, deputy editor, Fast Break
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