San Francisco - A California court signed a final settlement late last week in cases brought against makers of garden hoses by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH). Under California's toxics law Proposition 65, CEH sued the producers for hoses that leach lead into water, a potential hazard especially for children who drink from hoses or play in hose spray. Lead can cause brain damage and irreversible developmental problems in children.

The companies that settled include the country's largest producer and distributor of garden hoses, the Ridgefield N.J.-based Tekni-Plex company, maker of Colorite Waterworks brand hoses. Other companies in the settlement are Teknor Apex of Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Flexon Industries of Newark, NJ. CEH cases against other companies, including Sears, Kmart and Martha Stewart, are ongoing.

 "In these hot summer days, it's nice to know that kids will be able to drink from hoses safely," said CEH Executive Director Michael Green. "Our yards shouldn't be danger zones where children are poisoned while they're cooling off in the sprinkler."

Lead leaching into hose water can come from the vinyl (PVC) material used to make hose or from brass nozzles on hoses. In producing PVC, lead is often added as a stabilizer. In sunshine, lead in hose water is a particular concern, as heat can cause hoses to leach even higher levels of lead.

In the settlement signed Friday by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay, the companies agreed to reformulate their products to reduce lead exposures below California's Prop 65 standard by 2007. In addition, warning labels on any hoses that could cause exposures above the standard would carry a prominent warning label reading, "Do not drink water from this hose. Wash hands after use."

 CEH filed legal notices to the hose makers last fall, after a July 2003 Consumer Reports story, "Dare you Drink From Your Garden Hose" exposed the problem of lead from garden hoses. The organization is represented in these cases by the Lexington Law Group, LLP, a San Francisco firm specializing in environmental and consumer public interest litigation.

California's Proposition 65 toxics law and its Unfair Competition Law allow for citizen enforcement when consumer products contain illegal levels of toxic chemicals. In previous public interest cases, CEH has used these California laws to change entire industries, including pressuring the wood playground equipment industry to stop using arsenic-treated wood, and eliminating health risks from lead in major brands of baby powder and children's medicines.