The Campaign for Healthier Solutions is coordinated by:
José Bravo
National Coordinator
619-838-6694
Send Jose an email
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Click here to visit the main Campaign for Healthier Solutions website,
-hosted by the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA)-
with research reports, background materials, media links, and action alerts.
The Campaign for Healthier Solutions (CHS) and its ongoing efforts to push for safer, non-toxic products in dollar stores have been covered by the Guardian, National Geographic, Salon Magazine/Grist, Bloomberg Law, The San Diego Tribune, E&E News, and more.
CHS was created by Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform and is supported by over 140 community, health, mainstream green, religious, farmworker, and environmental justice organizations across the country. CHS encourages dollar store chains to protect their customers and the communities in which they operate — and grow their businesses — by implementing corporate chemical policies to identify and phase out harmful chemicals in the products they sell, and stock locally and sustainably-grown, healthy foods. The campaign is led by grassroots organizations in affected communities and their allies, and engages diverse partners to support interconnected strategies with a strong environmental justice focus and leadership.
All families deserve safe and healthy products, and all communities deserve business partners that will prioritize the health of their customers.
Unfortunately, millions of American families live in intentionally food-deprived areas without access to fresh fruits and vegetables—forcing them to rely on dollar stores for much of their food and household items. We tested dollar store products and found that many contain toxic chemicals at alarming levels. Sadly, the nation's largest dollar store chains have done very little to protect our families and their workers.
People of color and low-income communities are often already over-exposed to toxic chemicals and unhealthy foods, and that’s why the Campaign for Healthier Solutions is working to get toxic chemicals out of dollar stores. Our campaign is focused on environmental and economic justice, led by grassroots community activists, and we’re fighting to make sure dollar stores help solve our problems—instead of adding to them.
We’ve already won partial commitments from some of the nation’s largest dollar stores, but there’s still lots of work to do to get them caught up to other major retailers. Please support our work for a more just and nontoxic future.
Stay tuned for campaign events and yearly actions you can join to get involved!
Latest Resources and Reports
Testing for Toxic Chemicals in Dollar Store Products
A 2022 product screening report released by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and Ecology Center found that over 50% of items purchased at major dollar stores in 2021 contained chemicals of concern. Notably, many of these items included toys and other products marketed to children that were found to contain lead, PVC and phthalates.
Retailer Report Card
The Retailer Report Card is a report by the Mind the Store Campaign that addresses major U.S. retailers and their actions to eliminate toxic chemicals
2021: Discount retailers won the "most improved" retail sector overall- but not everyone made progress.
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- Dollar Tree improved from a D+ to a C+ for successfully eliminating 17 priority chemicals from its private-label products- but it still needs to publicly disclose its alternatives, so we know they are safe. And we're watching to make sure they follow through on eliminating and safely replacing all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), toxic flame retardants, and phthalates in the products they sell.
- Dollar General earned a C- grade, making progress from its D grade in 2019. The company committed to eliminating 8 chemicals from Dollar General’s private-label formulated products in the home cleaning and beauty & personal care categories by December 2022. But the company has not yet signed onto the Chemical Footprint Project, and has a long way to go in eliminating PFAS, toxic flame retardants, phthalates, and plastics of environmental concern from its products and packaging.
- 99 Cents Only Stores received another F with 0 points, for the fourth year in a row.
Lowering the Levels: A Healthy Baby Food Initiative
Download: What's in My Baby's Food? Our joint report with Healthy Babies Bright Futures and other partners on packaged baby food found that 95% of tested products contained at least 1 heavy metal that are linked to lower IQs.
BPA: Buyers Beware : Toxic BPA and regrettable substitutes found in the linings of canned food.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a toxic, endocrine-disrupting chemical that negatively impacts our hormonal systems, contributing to a host of harmful health effects. Hundreds of scientific studies have linked extremely small amounts of BPA, measured in parts per billion and even parts per trillion, to an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer, infertility, type-2 diabetes, obesity, asthma, and behavioral changes including attention deficit disorder. In this report, canned food from national food brands was collected in 19 states for testing. 67 percent of the cans tested (129 out of 192) contained BPA-based epoxy in the body and/or the lid.
A Day Late and Dollar Short: Discount Retailers are Falling Behind on Safer Chemicals
Download the report. In 2015, we partnered with Ecology Center to test 164 products purchased at the four largest dollar store chains (Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and 99 Cents Only) in six states. 81% of the products tested (133 of 164) contained at least one hazardous chemical above levels of concern, including lead and other hazardous metals, phthalates, and polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC or vinyl). Low-income communities and communities of color rely on dollar stores for staples, and are already disproportionately exposed to harmful chemicals. We argue that this places a higher level of responsibility on dollar stores to ensure they are not selling toxic products.
Browse the dollar store products that contained chemicals of concern.
Videos
Related News
January 27, 2023
Dollar General signs onto the Chemical Footprint Project, a step forward for chemical safety
Dollar General, the largest discount retail store in the United States, took an important step to improve product safety this week by signing onto the Chemical Footprint Project, a benchmarking metric that helps companies quantify the total mass of chemicals of concern in their products, and understand opportunities for safer chemicals in their supply chains. “We commend Dollar General for taking a hard look at its chemical footprint,” said José Bravo, National Coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “But we won’t stop organizing until the company adopts a robust chemical policy and phases out all chemicals of concern from its products.”
Read More
July 25, 2022
Items with lead are easy to find at antique shops, discount stores. They’re also toxic
Campaign for Healthier Solutions, which works to reduce lead and other toxic elements in items purchased at discount stores, has conducted studies over the years on the lead levels in things like tablecloths, jewelry and toys sold at discount stores. Its most recent study found that of 226 items tested, the level with toxic chemicals, including lead, dropped from 81% in 2015 to 53% in 2022. While the lead levels were improved, lead soldering in toys and headphones targeted towards children were found to have high levels of the toxic metal. The group wants discount stores to demand manufacturers produce products with no lead, said José Bravo, national coordinator for the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “Lead is such an easy lift for stores or retailers to go upstream to their suppliers and say, ‘Guess what? No lead is safe lead, right,’” he said.
Read More
May 27, 2022
Dollar General to phase out 11 more substances by next year
Major US discount store Dollar General has updated its chemicals policy, adding 11 substances to its restricted substances list (RSL) and applying this to more product brands that it owns and sells in its outlets. The company said, in an 18 May statement, that it has added the following substances to its RSL: 1-bromopropane; asbestos;1,4-dioxane; hexabromocyclodecanes (HBCD); octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4); lead and its compounds; cadmium and its compounds; bisphenol A (BPA); diethyl phthalate (DEP); dibutyl phthalate (DBP); and tetrachloroethylene (Perc). The update follows the company’s commitment in 2019 to phase out eight ‘high priority chemicals’ from its own label cleaning and beauty products by 31 December this year, including formaldehyde, butylparaben and trichloroethylene. The company said it is "on target" to do so. In April, US non-profits the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and the Ecology Center Healthy Stuff Lab said they found at least one chemical of concern in 53% of consumer products tested from five major discount retailers, including Dollar General.
Read More
April 22, 2022
More Than Half of Dollar Store Items Tested Contain Toxic Chemicals
In the seven years since the Campaign for Healthier Solutions published their initial report on toxic chemicals in dollar store products, Bravo has seen “light years” worth of progress in addressing the issue. While 53 percent of products tested still contained chemicals of concern in 2022, that number was 80 percent of 164 products tested in 2015. Further, when the campaign has gone back and tested items that previously tested positive for lead, they have found that they tested negative the second time.“They are not going to claim that it was us,” Bravo said, “we’ll claim that it was us.”
April 21, 2022
The cost of toxic products? Just $1
Discount retailers often promise shoppers they can buy household necessities for under a dollar, but too often there’s a toxic price to pay, according to a report released last week. More than 225 products — from baby toys to microwave popcorn to non-stick cookware — purchased from so-called “dollar stores” in 2021 were tested for adverse chemicals. Researchers with the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and the Ecology Center’s Healthy Stuff Lab found chemicals of concern in more than half of them. Since 2015, the Campaign for Healthier Solutions has been testing dollar store wares for chemicals like lead, which can damage children’s brains and harm their growth and development, and phthalates, which are endocrine-disruptors that can harm reproductive and cognitive development and have been linked to higher rates of childhood cancer. Read More
April 12, 2022
Testing finds toxic chemicals in 50% of dollar store goods
Products sold at dollar stores may be inexpensive, but a new report from the Campaign for Healthier Solutions also found high rates of toxic chemicals in the budget brands, raising questions of environmental justice. The consumer advocacy group purchased 226 products from Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Five Below and 99 Cents Only Stores in seven states and Ontario, Canada, and tested a total of 635 product components for toxic metals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals like flame retardants, bisphenol A and its substitutes, phthalates and PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.The results showed that half of the items had one or more chemicals of concern.“Many families rely on dollar stores for affordable toys and other products for kids,” said José Bravo, national coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. “With their high profit margins, dollar stores must do more to ensure that all of these products are safe.” One of the more surprising products where tests revealed the presence of toxic chemicals was children’s headphones. Read More
April 12, 2022
Harmful chemicals found in toys and canned food at US discount stores
An alarming number of products purchased at US dollar stores, including many children’s toys, contain harmful chemicals, according to a report released today. Researchers tested 226 products purchased at five popular retailers for chemicals, including phthalates and lead, and found that 120, or more than half, had at least one chemical of concern. Among the products that tested positive were colorful baby toys and Disney-themed headphones.“As a parent, I should be able to buy a product without expecting to poison my child,” said Jose Bravo, national coordinator at the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, a coalition that calls on dollar stores to phase out hazardous chemicals from their products. Read More
April 12, 2022
Hazardous Chemicals Present in Kids’ Products at Dollar Stores, Report Finds
A new product screening report released today by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions and the Ecology Center Healthy Stuff lab found hazardous chemicals of concern in children’s products sold by the leading dollar store brands in the US. “Many families rely on dollar stores for affordable toys and other products for kids. With their high profit margins, dollar stores must do more to ensure that all of these products are safe,” said José Bravo, National Coordinator of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions. Tests revealed the presence of lead, phthalates, toxic flame retardant chemicals, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) components in colorfully-labeled children’s products at Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Five Below. Lead was found in Disney and Marvel themed kids’ headphones at Five Below and Dollar Tree, a plastic baby toy at Dollar Tree, and 99 Cents Only Stores’ private-label earbuds. Ortho-phthalate plasticizers were found in children’s hair accessories and toys at Five Below. Fake teeth and lips sold at Dollar Tree and Dollar General were found to contain PVC, a dangerous plastic that can leach multiple hazardous chemicals, such as phthalates and heavy metals. Read More
April 4, 2022
The Just Transition Alliance is hiring a Program Assistant!
JTA is seeking a self-motivated and committed Program Assistant to join our team. The Program Assistant will play a key administrative support role, supporting our programs and providing general administrative support. Strong candidates will demonstrate exceptional time-management and enjoy working within a small, team that is mission- and results-driven and community oriented. This is a full-time position that can be remote or based in San Diego, CA. Read More
July 27, 2021
Martinelli’s among brands searching for safer bottle cap options
When the nonprofit Defend Our Health tested bottle caps from 141 beverage brands, they found potentially harmful chemicals in more than a third of them. Two Martinelli’s products were among these brands, but the Watsonville-based apple juice and cider company says it is now in the process of addressing the issue.
Defend Our Health worked with the Campaign for Healthier Solutions to collect and test 273 glass bottle caps for phthalates and vinyl plastics. Read More
July 14, 2021
Most Glass-Bottled Beverages Contain Toxic Chemicals Linked to Reproductive Harm and Brain Development, New Study Says
A report released today by the Toxic Free Food Campaign looked at nearly 300 bottle caps from over 140 beverage brands and found that most glass-bottled beverages are capped with toxic or unsustainable chemicals. Read More
April 7, 2021
New Report Reveals Toxic Chemicals in Cleaning Products
"Beyond the Label" - a new report from Women's Voices for the Earth - highlights the role of the cleaning products industry in cumulative harm and disproportionate burdens many cleaning product users already face from numerous other determinants of health, ranging from occupational exposure and pollutants in their environments, to social, racial and gender injustices. Read More
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