Breville Glass Kettle and California Proposition 65

June 16, 2013, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Lyn

I had been looking for an electric glass kettle and finally found the Breville the Crystal Clear 1800W Schott Glass Kettle. When I opened the box it had the following warning: "California Proposition 65 Applicable to California Residents Only This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm." I called Breville to find out what chemicals in this glass kettle could possibly cause cancer, etc. The answer I received is that they put this notice on all their packaging for all their products to meet California standards, whether or not the product contains any of the hazardous chemicals. The person I spoke with didn't know whether any part of the kettle contained any hazardous chemicals but it should be OK. I got the same response from William Sonoma where I purchased the kettle. Is there any way that you know of to find out more specifically the possible chemicals this individual kettle may have? Or should I just return it? 

Debra's Answer

This is one of the problems with Proposition 65. It's not correctly applied. It's supposed to give you a warning on individual products that contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

I don't know of a database that lists all the products that contain the warning and the chemical that prompts requiring the warning. Wouldn't that be useful? To me "it should be OK" is an insufficient answer.

I'll tell you though that I used to live in California and these warnings are so common that you get to a point where you don't even look at them. And that's partially because they don't say what the chemical is so you can't evaluate for yourself.

Here's an article about the pros and cons of Proposition 65. Los Angeles Times: Are Proposition 65 warning healthful or hurtful?

Here's a great article about Proposition 65 that includes what steps to take to find out what the chemicals are that make the product require the warning label. American Cancer Society: Cancer Warning Labels Based on California's Proposition 65

To answer your question, I would just visually inspect the item and see if any part of it looks like it might contain toxic chemicals. Just looking at the photo, there is a metal heating element, and is the base inside the pitcher metal or glass? The heating element might release metals, the stainless steel can release metals.