Walgreens, Time to Mind the Store for Children’s Health & to Reassure Customers

You’re thoughtfully stocking up on sunscreen as summer weather approaches, so you choose one off the shelf made for kids, even one that appears gentle enough for babies. You buy extra hand soap to donate for your child’s upcoming Vacation Bible School, trusting the antibacterial assurances on the package. You’re busy, so you pick up a new shower curtain liner at the same store that happens to sell those other health and beauty products you need.  Join the crowd.  We’re all counting on corner stores like Walgreens to bring our neighborhoods the good products we need for our modern lives.

Anne Brock from Flour Sack Mama blog
Concerned Parent & Consumer Advocate

Turns out no one is minding the store when it comes to toxic chemicals associated with serious health concerns, turning up in common products — not even at a trusted name like Walgreens.  That’s why I’m one of many parents across the United States returning some of those products and bringing a letter to my local store manager, asking Walgreens to Mind the Store! 

I had a wonderful conversation with the store manager today in Knoxville, Tennessee.  He was kind, thoughtful and open to learning new information.  It seems that he was just as stunned as any parent would be to find out that independent testing and research by members of the Mind the Store campaign has turned up things like toxic lead, phthalates and hormone-disrupting octinoxate in products sold at his store.  He and I are both amazed at how we’re all in this together — this situation where chemicals that act like drugs have sneaked into the supply chain, making our children the victims of an unintended experiment.  Which products will be safe and which won’t?  I don’t want to take that risk with my children, do you?  Especially when there are often safer alternatives.

Watch this short video to see which products I had to return to Walgreens and why.

See detailed information about what was found in Walgreens products at this new report at HealthyStuff.org.

Here’s what the Environmental Working Group has found about that sunscreen ingredient I mentioned.

Here’s more information about triclosan per Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.

Here’s an in-depth interview with the director of the Mind the Store campaign.

If you’ve bought some of these products containing chemicals of concern at Walgreens recently, you may choose to return them.  If you do, or even if you’re just dropping by to fill a prescription, you may want to bring along this printable letter and talk with your store manager. Explain that you’re a loyal Walgreens customer, and you need Walgreens’ help in cleaning up the supply chain so you know products you buy there are safe for your kids.

I hope you’ll comment here and let me know that you’re also asking Walgreens to Mind the Store.  When it comes to a healthier future, we really are all in this together.