May 31, 2023Dollar General urged to protect worker and customer health at annual shareholder meeting
Press Release
Media Contact
Deidre Nelms; Communications Director; Coming Clean; dnelms@comingcleaninc.org, (802) 251-0203 ext. 711.
Dollar General shareholders urged the discount retailer to better protect the health of workers and shoppers today at its annual shareholder meeting in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Shareholder advocates with the Campaign for Healthier Solutions (CHS) called on Dollar General to phase out chemicals of concern from its products and receipts, and voted yes on a shareholder proposal requesting an independent worker safety and well-being audit.
New testing conducted by the Ecology Center Health Stuff Lab has found hormone-disrupting bisphenol S (BPS) in receipts that were printed in select stores of the major discount retailers in 2022, including Dollar General.
“This is an important worker safety issue, ” said José Bravo, National Coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “Workers at Dollar General can handle hundreds of receipts in a single day. That repeated chemical exposure can add up to cause reproductive harm.”
Bravo and other shareholders also voted yes on a proposal requesting Dollar General’s Board of Directors to commission an independent worker safety and well-being audit, and make the results of this audit publicly available on the company’s website. Dollar General was recently added to the US Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration list of severe violators, due to work hazards documented in its stores.
Dollar General signed the Chemical Footprint Project earlier this year, a benchmarking metric that helps companies quantify the total mass of chemicals of concern in their products. Representatives from CHS sought reassurance that the company will take further action by exerting pressure on its suppliers to remove harmful chemicals in their products.
Dollar General has not yet committed to phasing out polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or the full family of phthalates from its private-label products. Recent product tests have shown that several products purchased at Dollar General in 2021 contained chemicals of concern, including PVC in a children’s toy, PFAS and bisphenol A (BPA) in non-stick cookware, and PVC in food can linings.
"Parents need to know that Dollar General is doing everything it can to protect customers from hazardous chemicals in its products," said Tracy Gregoire, Learning Disabilities Association of America’s Healthy Children Project Coordinator. "Signing onto the Chemical Footprint Project is only a first step. Now we need Dollar General to tell its suppliers it will not accept any products with harmful chemicals linked to learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, or other neurological impacts in its stores."
The Campaign for Healthier Solutions is a project of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) and Coming Clean, that includes environmental justice, public health and community organizations. Launched in 2015, CHS works with discount retailers to adopt responsible hazardous chemical policies. Dollar stores have been found to target communities of color and low-income communities. And these communities are disproportionately exposed to toxic chemicals; one half of major US dollar stores are located within three miles of a facility that uses or stores hazardous chemicals, according to the joint report “Life at the Fenceline.” Learn more at www.nontoxicdollarstores.org and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.