The ‘secretive’ nonprofit CERT made millions off California Prop 65 lawsuits. Where’d the money go?

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Warning! Chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity, including acrylamide, are present in coffee.

This was what greeted coffee lovers (or just coffee consumers) in California until June 3rd. On that date, California officials approved a new regulation that superseded its Proposition 65 (the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986) that lists more than 900 chemicals that could require warnings of potential cancer exposure. This new regulation declaring coffee free of any significant cancer risk (and needing no warning signs) follows a series of lawsuits—some ongoing—from a secretive nonprofit called the Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT).

Just who are CERT? And how do they figure into this coffee-lovers saga? The story is wrapped in the public’s fear of exposure to carcinogens and in supposed payouts of substantial dollars to CERT for the settlement of multiple lawsuits around the presence of acrylamide in foods that are part of our fast food and everyday lives. But where are those settlement dollars? Because if that money came to the organization, it appears to have passed through CERT’s hands without much of a record.

Read full, original article: Where Are the Millions This Nonprofit Made from Cancer Warnings?

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