Get Involved

The Power of the Marketplace  

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mind the Store is a new campaign from Safer Chemicals Healthy Families that works with retailers on moving the marketplace away from toxic chemicals.

From the MInd-the-Store Campaign, click on 100+ List of Toxic Chemicals of High Concern, charting the primary type of toxicity.    PDF:  http://kitchentablecampaigns.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/05/mindthestore.org-full-list-toxic-chemicals.pdf

To learn more, go to–http://mindthestore.saferchemicals.org/

THE ACTION TOOLKIT

TELL CONGRESS TO REMOVE TOXINS FROM OUR HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

http://www.nrdc.org/health/takeouttoxics.asp

THE LIST OF TOXINS IN OUR MARKETPLACE

From the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California (Proposition 65)–http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/files/P65single070513.pdf

From the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention–Deriving Chemicals of High Concern

ON MIND-THE-STORE CAMPAIGN!  WALMART!

REVISITED ON 2/2015:  WALMART AND TARGET FAIL IN THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY TO MIND THE STORE–AS LONG AS THEY SELL PRODUCTS THAT ARE STRONG SENSITIZERS (such as Febreze, Swiffer, Snuggles) WHICH EMIT TOXIC VOCs–THEIR WORDS DO NOT MATCH THEIR NEED FOR ACTION.

Here’s a snapshot of Walmart’s big news:

• By January 2015 all manufacturers who sell cleaning products, cosmetics, baby and personal care products will have to disclose the ingredients used in their products online. This is a major victory for consumers who, for the first time, will have access to which chemicals are used in certain products.

• Walmart prioritized around 10 toxic chemicals (to be announced later) in which they will seek to reduce and eliminate from certain product lines. When we spoke to Walmart’s Sustainability team, they told us that the chemicals they chose were on the Hazardous 100+ list. These chemicals will be phased out of the following product sectors: cleaning products, baby products, personal care products and cosmetics.

• Walmart will work with their suppliers to move towards safer alternatives. This is an important step, since many times as one toxic chemical is phased out and equally toxic chemical will be used as a replacement. Their policy seeks guidance from our friends at the Business NGO Workgroup.

• Walmart brand cleaners will no longer contain toxic chemicals outlined by the EPA’s Design for the Environment program. Another major announcement, the DfE program has a robust list of chemicals that can’t be used, indicating seriousness from Walmart to increase the safety of their cleaners.

• Priority chemicals as a first step. We know there are more than 10 toxic chemicals used in consumer products (see the Hazardous 100⁺), and hope that Walmart and other retailers work to expand the list of toxic chemicals they are addressing. We’re encouraged to see Walmart classify this as a “first step.”

http://blog.saferchemicals.org/2013/09/walmart-takes-the-lead-on-mind-the-store-challenge.html

ON MIND-THE-STORE CAMPAIGN!  TARGET!

Announced on October 14, 2013, Target is tking its first serious step to address toxic chemicals in their stores.  Check out Target’s First Step.

Here are some of the highlights of Target’s “Sustainable Products Standard”

• The standard works primarily as an incentive program for the manufacturers who sell in their store. Target will systematically rank their manufacturers on how they are doing in regards to chemicals, based on the criteria below. This ranking will be housed at the Good Guide.
• The manufacturers will be given a score, which will be used by Target’s buyers (the people who decide what to sell in their store) and will help guide their purchasing decisions.
• The ranking of products will be based on the following criteria:
  • 50% of the score goes to the ingredients used. In order to get the full points the manufacturer cannot use any of the1,000 unique chemicals identified by the authoritative lists here(all of these chemicals are on our Hazardous 100⁺ list!)
  • 20% of the score goes to transparency. This includes listing full ingredient list on product packaging or the manufacturers website. While not requiring manufacturers to do this, it is a large part of the score and will hopefully move the market towards more transparency and information for consumers.
  • 20% of the score for sustainable packaging – to receive the full points for this category the packaging must be recyclable to the majority of consumers, along with other criteria.
  • 5% of the score to no animal testing.
  • 5% of the score on having minimal impact on water quality – to receive the full points, the product cannot contain any chemicals or ingredients that are toxic to the aquatic environment.
  • The products ranked in this standard include: personal care, beauty, baby, and household cleaning.

Taking action on toxic chemicals from the retailer’s perspective is not an easy task.  A first step is only a first step.  There are a few areas for improvement for Target’s “Sustainable Products Standard.”  A few areas for improvement are as follows:

• The score that product manufacturers receive as part of this standard is not available to the public. This ranking is primarily used as a business-to-business tool, but we recognize that currently the public has little to no access to information on chemicals in products, and are hungry for this kind of information.
• Target will be adding other product categories over time (good), but won’t start to use this standard on cosmetics until 2014.
• Target hasn’t publicly stated how they will measure success from this program. We would like to work with Target to create a public, long-term goal by which we can assess if the standard is moving products away from toxic ingredients.

 

From Chemical Body Burden: Coming Clean, tips on how to get involved.

Before we are even born, synthetic chemicals and heavy metals of all kinds begin building up in our bodies.  This chemical “body burden” is the focus of the information you will find on this web site.

The information on this site has been developed through the collaboration of health professionals, scientists, citizens groups and environmental organizations concerned about the chemical body burden we all carry and its health effects – known and unknown.

We hope the information you find here will make clear the magnitude of the human experiment we are all part of and what can be done to make change.