(The Canadian Press)

By Derek Craddock

TOXIC CHEMICALS

Are your favourite dollar store items harbouring dangerous chemicals?

Sep 1, 2022 | 2:36 PM

Chances are you have bought many items during your trips to the local dollar store. But could the items in your basket contain high amounts of toxic chemicals?

According to a new report from an environmental group, the answer is likely yes.

Recently, a report was public by Environmental Defence following a study on several items purchased at Dollarama and Dollar Tree locations across Canada. The results were alarming them, as high amounts of lead and cadmium were found in everything from toys to electronics and canned food.

“Hidden lead inside of a dollar store product isn’t explicitly banned under our toxics legislation,” said Cassie Barker, who authored the report. “What we have is a situation where lead is inside a product but the way kids use products is they chew on things, they break things so that internal lead can easily become external lead.”

The report found that one in four items tested were positive for substances managed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Many of the findings were within the allowable limits, but the report said those limits are not strong enough.

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For example, the outer ring on a set of stereo headphones was found to have 24 times the legal limit of lead, and five times the legal limit of cadmium.

The solder inside the same headphones had 170 times what is considered safe on the outer portions of the headphones. The solder on a separate set of earbud-style headphones had 3,000 times the amount of lead allowed on the accessible portions.

But the solder is not covered by the regulations, a gap Environmental Defence insists must be closed.

“Dollar stores are one piece of the puzzle, but these retailers have an opportunity to protect their customers,” said Barker. “There are solutions to getting lead out of products. We shouldn’t be dealing with a legacy of highly toxic substances like lead in 2022.”

Barker said the tests were done on items from dollar stores because such stores are often the only option for people with low incomes or in marginalized communities.

She added the report is more of a first effort to address toxic chemicals saying others like hormone-disrupting chemicals in products could pose a risk in the future.

Combined, Dollarama and Dollar Tree have several locations in the north and north central parts of the province including shops in Prince Albert, Battleford, Melfort and North Battleford. Saskatoon has 13 Dollarama and Dollar Tree locations in the city.

When asked about the report and the calls for change, Dollarama responded with an email, calling out what they claimed were several inaccuracies in Environmental Defence’s report.

“The report as presented contains numerous incorrect assumptions and false claims regarding Dollarama’s business and products, the retail category it belongs to and its consumer base,” The statement reads. “Importantly, Dollarama, which caters to all demographics and income ranges, is held to the very same standards as all other Canadian retailers, as are its products, many of which come from the very same sources as those sold by other major national retailers. We understand that Environmental Defence Canada’s mission is to advocate for a tightening of the existing regulatory framework but also believe they should do so with factual information.”

The statement goes on to say that product safety is the company’s utmost priority, and they closely monitor regulatory development and adapts its practices to ensure continued compliance with evolving product safety rules and regulations as well as industry standards.

Barker said the goal here is to make sure all retailers follow the same guidelines to protect consumers.

“Obviously, retailers shouldn’t be shirking their responsibility for having safe products on their shelves,” she said, but regulators are leaving “big loopholes” for dollar stores to walk through.”

Dollar Tree has so far not responded to a request for comment.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock