Carcinogens, Proposition 65

Thank you very much. Good morning. This is sort of a reunion for me. I want to tell you a little story that happened about 37 years ago. And in doing so, I honor one of the co-founders of this great organization which is committed to information about health. And 37 years ago, there was a legal action filed against one of the co-founders because she was preparing materials in her home and disseminating it to the public on what.

At that time was nontraditional treatment for disease, specifically cancer.

I had known Betty Moralez for approximately five years and her company, Sun Circle Ranch's, who some of you may know was one of the pioneers of organic food.

And Betty called me up and said, we have a First Amendment case for you. And I said, describe it. She says, well, Lorraine Rosenthal, our co-founder, is publishing material on holistic treatment. And she's being prosecuted for disseminating this information out of her home. We need your help. And as an advocate of free information, the free flow of information and the transparency of all information so that we can verify its accuracy. I undertook the case and it has an interesting resolution. I asserted the First Amendment right of an individual and organization to disseminate information as long as it was accurate. Notwithstanding that it was not popular or accepted by traditional scientists.

The case was assigned to a young judge named Ronald George, and we asserted the First Amendment.

And Ronald George had been a deputy attorney general defending the state of California in its cases before the highest court. The California Supreme Court and, of course, the US Supreme Court. And we made the argument that Lorraine Rosenthal should not be prosecuted, that the case should be dismissed because she had a First Amendment right to disseminate accurate information. It is that dismissal of that case which permits us all to gather here and to hear the information that we are receiving about our health. That judge, that Judge Ronald George, was promoted to become the chief justice of California. And it's a fitting tribute to Lorraine, who does so much to make sure we get accurate information that that story is told and repeated because she did make a difference. And what was at that point considered to be non traditional release of information is slowly becoming the holistic approach to the identification of disease and to provide healthful remedies.

Prop 65 was a law that was enacted in nineteen eighty six.

California was the first state to adopt what is now called Prop 65 because it was an initiative law that is a law that