Englander v. Surgical Appliance Industries, Inc.

On January 30, 2017, citizen enforcer Peter Englander and settling party Surgical Appliance Industries, Inc. (“Surgical”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Englander had alleged that Surgical sold vinyl/PVC shower hoses containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Surgical agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC shower hoses in California after January 27, 2017, unless the hoses contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, OR have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Surgical provide Englander with written certification by December 15, 2017 that all vinyl/PVC shower hoses sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Englander agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of up to $26,875, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Englander and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.