For my #SaferChoices post about toothpaste, click here.
To see all of the Earthpaste posts in one place, click here.
Below are the packaging images from Earthpaste’s Lemon Twist flavor product. You can click on the images to see them larger. This product is clearly marketed for parents to use with their children (note the googlie eyes on the lemon), yet has a warning label stating it “may not be appropriate for consumption by children” (because of the unsafe levels of lead found in the product.). The company also has other links / online posts asserting that the standards for prop 65 labeling are inappropriate. and more remarkably, that “the amount of lead in their toothpaste is ‘safe’ (and even beneficial!). They have actually spent a remarkable amount of energy defending these assertions.
Independent attorneys I have spoken with have told me that the company’s labeling may actually not be in full compliance of the Prop 65 law – as the warning language is not distinct from the rest of the packaging, and it is difficult to read overall.
It would be more appropriate /compliant/ in line with the intention of the regulation for the prop 65 warning to be in clear plain dark writing on a distinct white background (as so many other companies have done when labeling their products.) I discussed this with the company’s owner in person (when we met at the Portland Green Festival in December of 2015) – yet Earthpaste has made no change.
Additionally, my friends and followers who are also parents have told me (many, many times) that they “thought the lemon flavor was the one flavor that did not have the warning” and so they “thought it was safe” for their kids. In addition to the poor labeling on the box contributing to this misperception, once you toss the box (which you do the moment you get the product home, keeping just the tube) there is no Prop 65 label on the tube, so it is easily forgotten (if you had even noticed it in the first place!)
What do you think? Please feel free to post a comment on this page!
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My revised packaging… (I did the work for them!):
Tamara, do you recommend people to avoid all products with a Prop 65 warning for lead? I am thinking about an Ayurvedic powdered supplement that I am taking in small amounts as a woman in my 40s. Thanks so much for your work!