Archived press release

Risky chemicals in high street stores

1 June 2004

High street stores must do more to phase out chemicals which may adversely affect human health, Friends of the Earth said today. The call coincides with a new survey by the environmental campaign group showing some stores are still not taking effective action to remove risky chemicals from their products.

Friends of the Earth surveyed 28 major high street retailers on their policies towards a number of chemicals that are known to build up in our bodies or may affect hormones and which have been linked to health threats such as increases in testicular cancer rates and the apparent earlier onset of puberty in girls. Unborn babies, infants and young children are particularly vulnerable to these chemicals as their bodies are developing so fast. Products where chemicals of concern may be found include plastic bottles, baby bottles, food cans, electronic equipment, home textiles, clothing, PVC floor tiles, paints, cosmetics and toiletries [1].

Ikea, Body Shop, Marks & Spencer, B&Q and Co-op topped Friends of the Earth's league table when it comes to replacing risky chemicals with safer alternatives [2][3][4]. But Mothercare, John Lewis and Argos languish at the bottom [5], whereas Tesco, Asda and Morrison's were among those that did not even reply to the survey. Homebase and Sainsbury also failed to reply, even though they have committed themselves to reporting on their work by signing Friends of the Earth's retailers' pledge on safer chemicals [6].

Awareness of problem chemicals is increasing. All the retailers that responded to Friends of the Earth's survey have done some work, even if only on their own-brand products [7]. For example, the Co-operative Retail group has recently produced a line of household cleaning products without phthalates and some artificial musks [8], and the British Retail Consortium has produced a Chemicals Toolkit to help retailers prepare strategies for dealing with chemicals [9].

All the retailers who replied to the question on the subject supported the consumers' right to know about chemicals in products. However, retailers do not necessarily know what is in their products, often because suppliers do not know. Currently, many consumer products (e.g. clothing, furniture, toys, TVs) are not labelled with their chemical content.

Friends of the Earth is calling for stores to do more to reduce the risks posed to their customers, particularly with respect to branded products. Retailers should also disclose their own policies on hazardous chemicals - if any - and report publicly on progress.

Karine Pellaumail, Safer Chemicals Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:

"Every day unborn babies, infants and toddlers are exposed to risky chemicals in household products. Retailers are responsible for the products they sell, and should remove chemicals that have been linked to health threats. Although a number of retailers have started to tackle this important issue, too many stores are still not doing enough to reduce the risks that their products pose."

In addition to voluntary action, Friends of the Earth is calling for tough new laws to regulate chemicals. The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are currently discussing proposed new chemical legislation (known as REACH) [10].

Karine Pellaumail added:

"Ultimately we need strong legislation to remove hazardous chemicals that accumulate in wildlife, humans or the environment, and disrupt hormones. Consumers must be protected from potentially dangerous chemicals that are found in everyday products."

Notes

[1] The target chemical groups are: brominated flame retardants (may be used in electronic equipment such as TVs, computers and video systems, and home textiles), bisphenol A (may be used in the linings of food cans and lids, plastic bottles, baby bottles), phthalates (may be used in PVC products - such as vinyl floor tiles and toys - glues, inks and solvents in cosmetics and toiletries), alkyltin (may be used as anti-bacterial agents in home textiles and upholstered furniture, and in some plastics), alkylphenols (may be used in paints, some clothing and some plastics), artificial musks (may be used as fragrances in perfumes, cosmetics, toiletries, laundry detergents, etc), triclosan (may be used as anti-bacterials in washing up liquids, liquid soaps, mouthwashes, dishcloths and chopping boards), PFOS and PFOA (may be found in stain-resistant fabric, coatings used in cookware and toiletries). See page 10 of our new report [3] for more information on the chemicals.

[2] Friends of the Earth's league table on retailers and risky chemicals is as follows. It will be available at the address below from Tuesday.

www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/safer_chemicals/news/retailer_quiz_results.html

1. Ikea 86%

2. Body Shop 84%

3. Marks & Spencer 79%

4. B&Q 71%

5. Co-operative Retail 61%

6. Early Learning Centre 59%

7. Debenhams 58%

8. Boots 54%

9. Focus Group* 52%

10. Woolworths 46%

11. Safeway 43%

12. Somerfield - Kwik Save** 41%

13. Waitrose 40%

14. Argos 36%

15. John Lewis 27%

16. Mothercare 25%

• Retailers who provided very limited information but did not respond to our survey questions: ASDA, BHS, Homebase, Iceland, Tesco (see full report [3] for details).

• Retailers who provided no answers to the survey questions: Hamleys, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Superdrug, Toymaster, Toys `R' Us.

* Focus Group was formerly called Focus Wickes

** Somerfield & Kwiksave belong to the same parent company

Scores are worked out as a percentage of the total possible score for all the question sections that are relevant to each retailer to allow comparison. See [4] for more explanation of the scoring.

[3] The full report `Shop till you drop?: Survey of high street retailers on risky chemicals in products 2003-2004' also contains league tables by retail sectors such as supermarkets, cosmetics and toiletries retailers, department & general stores and toy retailers. It will be available on our website www.foe.co.uk from Tuesday.

Also available will be a 4 page summary briefing aimed at shoppers called Shoppers Update 2004.

See www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/safer_chemicals/news/retailer_quiz_results.html. For an advance copy of `Shop till you drop?' or the Shoppers Update call 020 7566 1686/ 07789 845 120 (m).

[4] Companies were scored on whether the target chemicals are in the products they sell, if they are seeking alternatives, whether they plan to phase them out and by when and whether they would inform customers which products contain them as well as on their internal policy regarding risky chemicals. For a copy of the questions sent out to each retailer, see Appendix 1 of our report `Shop till you drop? [3].

We have made every effort to score fairly based on the companies' responses, and to ensure that companies are compared to one another in as fair a way as possible. Due to the complexity of the survey and the variable quality of information received from companies, small discrepancies may exist. Note that we only surveyed larger companies; there may be smaller companies who have taken action on the target chemicals.

[5] Argos has products with phthalates, stated that some plastics may be contaminated with alkyltins, and thought that nitro musks "may be present" in certain brand products. It reported no specific policy on chemicals other than to comply with the existing legislation. It also noted that their suppliers do not always have the information about chemical content and so cannot know themselves.

Mothercare reported the presence of brominated flame retardants, bisphenol A, phthalates, alkylphenols, artificial musks and triclosan in its products. It said it has no plans for providing chemical information on request, even though it supported the consumer's right to know. However, Mothercare is working on alternatives.

John Lewis's poor score was partly due to failing to answer questions on internal policy and general work on chemicals, including its lack of comments on access to information. It stated that "given the scale of our product offer (500,000 lines) it is not realistic to expect John Lewis to examine and monitor the composition of every product sold." The company's sourcing policy appears not to go beyond existing legislative requirements, referring only to "codes of practice" with respect to chemicals, and it has not signed Friends of the Earth's retailers pledge. However, John Lewis says it has made "significant progress" with its own brand products, having virtually eliminated some of the chemicals of concern.

[6] Friends of the Earth's Risky Chemicals pledge:

A responsible retailer would:

Using official lists, identify which man-made chemicals are suspected of building up in people's bodies (bioaccumulation), or interfering with the hormone, immune or nervous systems.

Produce a strategy to identify which of its own brand and branded products, including fruit and vegetables, contain these chemicals.

Produce a timeline to phase out these chemicals from its own-brand products, with the aim of eliminating them in 5 years, starting with those chemicals which pose the greatest threat.

Put pressure on manufacturers of branded products to do the same.

Report publicly on progress on an annual basis.

The signatories to the pledge are (in alphabetical order): Argos, The Body Shop, Boots, B&Q, The Co-op, Debenhams, The Early Learning Centre, Focus Group, Homebase, Ikea, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, Sainsbury's, Somerfield-KwikSave and Woolworths - representing more than 8000 stores overall.

[7] For more information on the EU proposed legislation on chemicals REACH (Registration, Evaluation & Authorisation of Chemicals) see:

Friends of the Earth joint website with Greenpeace and the European Environmental Bureau www.chemicalreaction.org/ with detailed information about the issues, the legislation and the improvements we would like to see.

The European Commission's website http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/reach.htm

[8] The retailers who did best in the survey are those with either 100%, or a significant proportion, of 'own-brand' products. Some retailers commented that even their suppliers may not know the chemical content of products - which would mean that they would have difficulty informing a consumer or devising a strategy to clean up their products.

[9] Cooperative Retail, 2004, Media release: `Co-op Bans Toxic Chemicals in New Ethical Drive', 13/5/2004,
www.co-op.co.uk/ext_1/Development.nsf/ ¬
504ca249c786e20f85256284006da7ab/6b6b045b527a37d480256e92005dea2c? ¬
OpenDocument

[10] British Retail Consortium, 2004, Chemicals toolkit, April

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