How the settlement figures are built

The source

The California Attorney General publishes two files each year: every out-of-court settlement and every judgment that a filer reported for a Proposition 65 notice. Each row carries the notice's AG number, the parties, the chemicals, the amounts and the terms. This site reads those files daily and matches each row to the notice with the same AG number.

The entry date in those files is the date the state recorded the row. It is not the date the case settled.

How each figure is counted

• A notice is resolved when at least one row of the files carries its AG number.
• A notice's payment is the sum of the totals of its rows. A row that the state lists twice is counted once.
• The median is the middle value. With an even count it is the mean of the two middle values, rounded to the nearest cent.
• The 10th percentile of n payments is the one at position n times 0.1, rounded up, in the list sorted from lowest. The 90th is the one at position n times 0.9, rounded up. With 20 payments those are the 2nd and the 18th.
• Days are counted from the notice's filing date to the earliest entry date among its rows.
• The share for attorney fees and costs is those amounts added up, over the totals added up.
• A median, a days figure, a fee share and the terms are shown only with at least 10 resolved notices. A range is shown only with at least 20.

How the terms are grouped

Each resolved notice is placed in one group by the words in the Injunctive Relief field of its rows, whatever their case. A word counts when it starts with one of the listed stems, so "design" does not count as "sign".

• Warning words: "warn", "label", "relabel", "signage", "signs", and the single word "sign".
• Reformulation words: "reform", "refom", "reforum". The second and third are misspellings the files contain.
• Warning only: a warning word and no reformulation word.
• Reformulation only: a reformulation word and no warning word.
• Warning and reformulation: words from both lists.
• Other or not stated: neither. This includes a promise not to sell, and a blank field.

The grouping reads words and not meaning. Terms that say "no warning required" are still counted under warning. Terms that only state a level, such as so many micrograms a day or parts per million, are grouped by their other words: most of them repeat the level at which a warning is owed, and a few set a limit on the product without using the word reformulation. Those few are counted under "other".

What the figures do not say

• They are counts of past notices. They are not a prediction for any company or notice, and they are not legal advice.
• They rely on filers reporting to the Attorney General. An outcome that was never reported is not counted.
• Recent notices are still being resolved, so figures for recent years will change.
• The amounts are what defendants agreed to pay. That money is divided among the state, the noticing party and attorneys, and the files do not say how much went to any of them beyond the parts they list.
• A settlement is not an admission of liability and not a finding that a violation occurred.
• Notices filed before 2018 are not on this site, so rows that point at them are left out.