Proposition 65's Right-to-Know Provision: Can It Keep Its Promise to California Voters

Every day, people are exposed to toxic chemicals in their workplaces and homes through the regular use, discharge, and disposal of industrial chemicals and chemically based consumer products.'Prompted by the increasing incidence of exposure and the well-founded concerns of their constituents, legislatures have enacted laws attempting to reduce inadvertent exposure to toxics.One provision often contained in these environmental statutes-the "right-to-know" or warning provisionmandates that information about toxic hazards be communicated to those potentially exposed to them.Some right-to-know provisions target the workplace, whereas others seek to inform public officials and citizens of the health and environmental effects of toxics found in their communities.California voters recently approved a right-to-know provision as part of Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.2Proposition 65 focuses on two substantive goals.First, it seeks to eliminate the discharge of certain toxic substances into the state's drinking water: "No person in the course of doing business shall knowingly discharge or release a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity into water or onto or into land where such chemical passes or probably will pass into any source of drinking water .... ,,3 Second, the initiative requires that those who produce or use toxic substances (or products containing those substances) warn peo-