ScubaPro Dive bag and Cancer Warning Concerns

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I received a ScubaPro Dive bag off of Amazon and there's a warning sticker:

"WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Di(2-ethylhexyl)phtjalate (DEHP) and Lead, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65warnings.ca.gov"

Is this normal and just an overblown concern, or should I just get a different bag?

Thanks for your advice. (I'm from Washington state and not in California btw, not like it matters).

Hi BavarianZHP,

Did you know that an orange contains some highly toxic materials?

The Initiative Ballot Measure process in California is wide open for all to abuse. All you have to do is get enough signatures from bona-fide voters and your initiative is on California's ballot. If you word the ballot measure correctly, people will think that you are trying to save the world, the children, and the immigrants (illegal or otherwise).

That's what happened with Prop 65; good intentions but completely stupid.

Here in Ohio many of our products contain the Prop 65 warning.

Did you know that every person who eats carrots will die?

It all gets ridiculous.

Load up that bag with your dive gear, and dive on,
markm
 
I am not concerned about me. But as said, the number of divers and the number of soft lead packages for some lakes for sure will be noticeable.

Soft lead packages is simply solid lead in a smaller package, unless the lake is acidic it isn't an issue there either.
 
I received a ScubaPro Dive bag off of Amazon and there's a warning sticker:

"WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Di(2-ethylhexyl)phtjalate (DEHP) and Lead, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65warnings.ca.gov"

Is this normal and just an overblown concern, or should I just get a different bag?

Thanks for your advice. (I'm from Washington state and not in California btw, not like it matters).


Which model bag did you order?
 
What you're seeing is a Prop 65 warning, which comes on just about everything and is posted in just about every business in the state of California. I don't think it's entirely accurate to call it a product of our litigious society, because it's not the result of a lawsuit; it's the law, passed in 1986 by ballot initiative. Lawsuits do exist as an enforcement mechanism for failure to comply with the law, however.

California has a ballot initiative system that allows anyone who can collect enough signatures to put a proposed law to a vote by the people, bypassing the legislature entirely. Most of the time, someone with expertise weighs in on the voter information pamphlet, and the poorly-written or downright stupid ballot initiatives fail. But neither the voters nor the legislators can always predict the exact outcome of what seems to be a well-drafted law.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, which appeared on the ballot and is now more commonly known as Proposition 65, was one such instance. It's a complex statute, but essentially it prohibits businesses from dumping toxic chemicals into drinking water sources, and requires them to warn consumers if they are exposing them to toxic chemicals. Sounds reasonable, right? And in fact, it has been pretty successful at getting businesses to reformulate their products to reduce the use of chemicals causing cancer and/or birth defects, which has benefited the health of not only Californians, but of everyone who does business with those who also wish to do business in California.

The warning part has been tricky, though. The idea was for businesses to either figure out a way to do without the specific toxic chemicals listed by the government, or at least inform consumers so they could make an educated choice about their own risk exposure (maybe pregnant women, for example, would choose to avoid certain products or businesses just like they avoid sushi, alcohol, and scooping the litter box until the baby's out.) But some businesses either choose to disregard the intent of the law and just post a generic warning, while others do their best to follow the spirit of the law by removing toxic chemicals but post the generic warning anyway just in case. Either way, you end up with something that is at first vaguely alarming but completely useless information to the consumer, and over time is ignored.

There was another ballot initiative in our state recently to require purveyors of food products to label any foods containing GMOs. Lots of people thought it was a good idea; after all, we don't know the full range of possible consequences that might result from monkeying around with DNA, and this would allow progress to continue while allowing individuals to choose how much of this brave new world they wanted to live in. Others pointed to the ubiquitous Prop 65 signs and said, "really? This again?"

So no, your dive bag is not going to give you cancer or a mutant baby. Also democracy is hard.
 
Keep in mind, a package of razor blades now carries a warning label that reads, CAUTION - SHARP

Really? Wow, I was hoping so......

Along this line, I bought some child wading pools for a project a while back. They came with stickers on the bottom that said "No Diving." Really? Maybe if they removed the stickers that would solve some of our problems.
 
Do you live in California? If not you're probably ok.

If you do live in California, well, you're going to die one day.
 
Soft lead packages is simply solid lead in a smaller package, unless the lake is acidic it isn't an issue there either.

Actually soft lead packages are much worse then lead blocks weights. The block get's a protective coating of Lead Oxide that keeps it from reacting with a lot of stuff (acidic water to a degree). Lead pellets in a bag keep rubbing that oxide layer off and it ends up in the environment. A lot of old soft leads leave a black powder on the bottom of the rinse bucket. that/s the oxide layer.
 
What we need is a law in other states that prohibits a proposition 65 warning on items sold in those states. Then manufacturers would have to either make California specific packaging or choose to sell their products only in Ca or not at all in Ca.

I'm sure prop 65 seemed like a good idea at the time. Now it just turns California into a laughing stock.

California causes cancer.

Completely true. Especially if you go outdoors in California during the daytime on a regular basis. I think they should put prop 65 warnings on every door leading to the outside.
 
Actually soft lead packages are much worse then lead blocks weights. The block get's a protective coating of Lead Oxide that keeps it from reacting with a lot of stuff (acidic water to a degree). Lead pellets in a bag keep rubbing that oxide layer off and it ends up in the environment. A lot of old soft leads leave a black powder on the bottom of the rinse bucket. that/s the oxide layer.

It also could be just the residue from the ranges that they lead was collected from. Not all the companies use new lead shot.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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