California Adds Vinyl Acetate to Proposition 65 List as a Carcinogen
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added vinyl acetate to its list of chemicals regulated under Proposition 65. Vinyl acetate is used mainly in polymer and copolymer production and as a food additive. The chemical was added to California’s law protecting residents from substances that cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm after the state’s Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) determined that vinyl acetate has been “clearly shown to cause cancer.” The Proposition 65 listing of vinyl acetate went into effect on Jan. 3.
According to an OEHHA notice, the 11-member CIC voted unanimously to add vinyl acetate to the Proposition 65 list during a public meeting held in December 2024. The vote followed a summary of the evidence for the chemical’s carcinogenicity presented by OEHHA staff. OEHHA’s hazard identification document on vinyl acetate (PDF), published in October 2024, lays out the findings of studies that provide evidence for the agency’s conclusion. Vinyl acetate was classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1995 and as “suspected of causing cancer” by the European Chemicals Agency in 2011, the hazard identification document notes.
During the same meeting, CIC voted to add 2,2,3-trifluoro-3-(trifluoromethyl)oxirane, also known as hexafluoropropylene oxide or HFPO, to California’s list of chemicals “for which testing is required but has been inadequate,” OEHHA states.
Proposition 65 requires businesses to warn people in California about toxic chemicals in their products, homes, and workplaces or that are released into the environment. Under the law, California must publish and update yearly a list of covered chemicals. Over 900 chemicals have been added to the Proposition 65 list since the law was passed as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.
For more information about the OEHHA determination on vinyl acetate, see the agency’s notice.
