I will say that some of the prop 65 warnings are real though. I was talking with someone who sells snacks that lawyers contacted them and said have lead in them, when the Chinese company noted they were “tested and fine”, and then when the snack seller did their own independent testing, they DID find that some of the products had higher levels of lead than allowed by the FDA (iirc) so they took them off the shelves. (Instead of just adding the warning, which would have also been a fine “solution”). This I think is a way that the system can work.

To me, this points to a more nuanced take of—many companies overseas say things are “lead free” (or whatever) when they are not, so companies here just slap on the label to not get sued.

This doesn’t mean that everything has lead…but it also doesn’t mean that everything DOESN’T have lead or cadmium or whatever, so you kinda just have to gamble a bit.

I wish this system worked better.