Notice to Interested Parties Request For Comments on Proposed Listing of Riddelliine as Known to Cause Cancer

Oct 22, 2004

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is the lead agency for the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Health and Safety Code section 25249.5 et seq., Proposition 65). OEHHA is proposing to include “riddelliine” on the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer, for the purposes of Proposition 65. Riddelliine is a chemical found in plants of the genera Crotalaria, Amsinckia and Senecio that grow in the western U.S. Riddelline should not be confused with the pediatric drug ritalin, used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.

Health and Safety Code section 25249.8(a) requires that certain substances identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) or the National Toxicology Program (NTP), as described in Labor Code section 6382(b)(1) and (d), be included on the Proposition 65 list. Labor Code section 6382(b)(1) references substances identified as human or animal carcinogens by IARC, and Labor Code section 6382(d) references substances identified as carcinogens or potential carcinogens by IARC or NTP. Riddelliine was identified by IARC as an animal carcinogen.

In 2002, IARC issued the monograph Some Traditional Herbal Medicines, Some Mycotoxins, Naphthalene and Styrene (Volume 82) in its series IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. In this monograph, IARC concluded “there is sufficient evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of riddelliine.”

Pursuant to state law, IARC’s designation of riddelliine as an animal carcinogen means that “riddelliine” must be included on the Proposition 65 list (Labor Code sections 6382(b)(1) and (d)). Therefore, OEHHA proposes to add “riddelliine” to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer. Anyone wishing to provide comments as to whether “riddelliine” meets the requirements for listing as causing cancer specified in Health and Safety Code section 25249.8(a), by reference to Labor Code sections 6382(b)(1) and (d), should send written comments in triplicate, along with any supporting documentations, by mail or by fax to:

Ms. Cynthia Oshita
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
Street Address: 1001 I Street
Sacramento, California 95814
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 4010
Sacramento, California 95812-4010
Fax No.: (916) 323-8803
Telephone: (916) 445-6900

Comments may also be delivered in person or by courier to the above address. It is requested, but not required, that written comments and supporting documentation be transmitted via email addressed to: coshita@oehha.ca.gov. In order to be considered, comments must be postmarked (if sent by mail) or received at OEHHA (if hand-delivered, sent by FAX, or transmitted electronically) by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 22, 2004.