ELR Citation: ELR 20057
No(s). A116792 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. Mar 11, 2009)

A California appellate court affirmed a trial court's ruling in favor of tuna companies in a state lawsuit seeking to require the companies to warn pregnant women and women of childbearing age that they are exposed to methylmercury when they consume canned tuna. Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires companies that expose consumers to carcinogens or reproductive toxins to provide a warning, subject to specified defenses. Here, substantial evidence supports the trial court's finding that methylmercury in tuna is naturally occurring, thereby removing the tuna companies from the reach of Proposition 65.