Campaign for Healthier Solutions

The Campaign for Healthier Solutions (CHS) today published the results of a year-long effort to collect, test, and screen dollar store products for chemicals of concern. Highlighted products of concern purchased at Dollar Tree/Family Dollar and/or Dollar General include: “Baby Shark” baby lotion containing a formaldehyde-releasing chemical; daily moisturizer containing a chemical banned in European cosmetics; light-up children’s bracelets, plastic roses and mini candy pails containing lead; children’s products made with polyvinyl chloride or PVC, and receipts containing bisphenol-S. Published the week of Mother’s Day, “Product Testing for the People: Pitfalls, Persistence, and Progress in Transforming Dollar Stores” provides safe shopping tips for families and actionable recommendations for Dollar Tree and Dollar General to expand, improve, and enforce their chemical policies. The report also highlights loopholes in federal law that allow companies to sell products containing chemicals of concern, showing the importance of corporate action. Take action! 

Central Coast members of Lideres Campesinas organized a protest outside the Dollar Tree store in Orcutt, CA as part of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions national week of action calling on dollar store chains to protect their customers from toxic chemicals in the products they sell. “These big companies, they have their a store in the poorest community and the poorest area of the community, they establish their store for colored people, fieldworkers, people who are not able to buy expensive products,” says Rosalba Garcia.

Jose Bravo, Coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, calls on dollar stores to do more to get toxic chemicals out of the productst they sell. "The nation’s largest dollar stores continually fail to meaningfully strengthen their chemical policies and intervene in their supply chains to keep their shoppers safe."

This week, supporters of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions are vising dollar stores in 30 states nationwide, with the support of health and environmental justice organizations, to demand products free of toxic chemicals.

On May 29, 2024, representatives of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions attended Dollar General’s annual shareholders meeting in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, urging the company to commit to eliminating chemicals of concern from its supply chain. After the company failed to make any new commitments to strengthen its chemical policy or expand its restricted substance list, representatives from the campaign delivered a letter to company executives urging additional action, and announced that they were actively testing Dollar General products for chemicals linked to health conditions like cancer, learning disabilities, and reproductive harm.