ABSTRACT
The supporters of California’s Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, intended to provide a mechanism that would inform consumers whether the food they ingested contained carcinogenic or teratogenic chemicals. Many naturally occurring chemicals that appear in the food and water are both carcinogenic and teratogenic. The issue in the Deukmejian case is whether a product containing a given chemical must be labeled solely because the chemical has been put into the product in some way by humans. Proposition 65 was a ballot measure entitled, “Restrictions on Toxic Discharge into Drinking Water; Requirement of Notice of Persons’ Exposure to Toxics.” The California law in the Deukmejian case seeks to regulate the consumption process in order to prevent the harm that is perceived to be created by the use of toxic chemicals in the production, primarily, of food.
