Dollar Stores | Toxic products found in many articles

Products sold at Dollarama and Dollar Tree in Canada have a lead content 3,000 to 8,000 times higher than the recommended limit, reveals a report by the Environmental Defense organization published in August. A loophole in the regulations allows them to exceed this limit without breaking Canadian laws.

Alice Girard-Bosse
The Press

Nearly three out of ten products sold by these chains also contain other heavy metals and toxic chemicals, shows this recent study.

These high amounts of lead have been found in many items, such as headphones, earphones, and activity tracker bracelets.

In Canada, the total lead content on the surface of a product cannot exceed 90 mg/kg. However, there are no regulations regarding the presence of lead inside the products, despite their tendency to disintegrate and expose their hidden components.

“This regulatory loophole is a loophole that dollar stores use to sell products that contain high levels of lead — without breaking any laws,” Environmental Defense said in its report, noting that exposure to this metal can cause neurological, cardiovascular, renal and reproductive damage.

The lead content measured inside headphones sold by Dollar Tree was 8,000 times higher than the allowable limit on the surface. Inside the earphones offered at Dollarama, the lead content was 3000 times higher than the limit allowed on the surface.

Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, professor of environmental health at the University of Toronto, reminds us that with lead, “there is no safe level”. “We’re trying to achieve zero exposure,” she says.

Adverse health effects

Environmental Defense also tested a series of items from Toronto-area Dollarama and Dollar Tree stores for toxic chemicals.

The results, released a few days ago, are concerning: 25% of items tested from Dollarama and 30% of items tested from Dollar Tree contained toxic chemicals. These components have been found in particular in children’s toys and household products.

Food packaging, such as canned food and packets of microwaveable popcorn, also contained dangerous chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA) and PFAS.

“If bisphenols are exposed to acids, such as tomato juice, or to heat, because they are heated, they will tend to detach and migrate into food”, explains Louise Hénault-Ethier, director of the Eau Terre Environnement Center and associate professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research.

These products may have adverse effects on reproduction, central nervous system and behavioral development.

In addition, all the bills tested from Dollarama contained bisphenol S (BPS), a product that may pose a risk to reproductive health. The environmental organization considers that these invoices “should not be manipulated hundreds of times by cashiers and given to each customer”.

Since the researchers were content to analyze the products of the Dollarama and Dollar Tree chains, the study does not make it possible to know whether BPS is also found in the invoices of other stores.

“Issue of environmental racism”

Racialized and low-income communities are particularly targeted by low-cost retailers. “The more vulnerable groups will therefore be more exposed to various toxic products. We see a huge issue of environmental racism, ”says M^me Henault-Ethier.

Cassie Barker, senior toxics program manager at Environmental Defence, agrees. “People living in Canada should not be poisoned by the products they buy in discount stores, regardless of their socioeconomic status,” she said in the report released by the organization.

For this reason, the organization calls on the government to strengthen laws and test products imported from abroad. “It is clear that the laws and policies of the Canadian government do not offer sufficient protection to consumers, especially children, against these toxic exposures,” she claims.

Moreover, since no federal regulations oblige companies to indicate on the label or to disclose in any other way the presence of these substances in the products they sell, consumers do not have access to this information. “In fact, many of these ingredients and formulations are considered ‘trade secrets’,” laments the environmental organization, which is calling for greater transparency, including through mandatory labeling indicating hazardous substances in products. .

In response to the request of The PressDollarama said its products cited in the report “all comply with applicable Canadian product regulations and are safe to use for their intended purpose.”