The State - News from June 23, 1988

The AFL-CIO and environmental groups filed suit charging that Gov. George Deukmejian has failed to follow the requirements of Proposition 65, the anti-toxics initiative, and designate an “authoritative” agency that would help the state determine which chemicals cause cancer and birth defects. The labor and environmental activists would like the governor’s scientific advisory panel to declare the federal Environmental Protection Agency and other nationally recognized groups as “authoritative,” in the hope of adding pesticides and other chemicals to the list of substances covered by Proposition 65. So far, however, the only agency that the scientific advisory panel has declared to be “authoritative” is itself. Deukmejian’s panel has identified more than 200 chemicals that are carcinogenic or known to cause birth defects and are therefore subject to the requirements of Proposition 65.