1 in 4 products tested at Canadian dollar stores are toxic – that’s the latest findings from a report released by our friends at Environmental Defence.

The levels of toxicity is alarming  – a part of headphones tested had 3,000 times the amount of lead allowed according to Canadian law. And there are many products and now way to tell which you’re buying.

Toxic dollar store products can cause serious health problems – lead poisoning can cause significant cognitive and developmental delays in young children with high exposures and can create risks of high blood pressure and kidney damage in adults.

Canadian law leaves huge loopholes for dollar stores such as Dollarama and Dollar Tree to continue selling these products, but our government can stop this with a stroke of a pen.

Call on the Canadian Environment Minister to make changes to the Environmental Protection Act and ban toxic dollar store junk now.

At the beginning of the Pandemic, SumOfUs members pushed for Dollarama to improve its working conditions. Our campaign went viral on social media and we were featured on CTV news.

And the pressure worked –  Dollarama extended hazard pay for two months longer than retailers such as Loblaws, installing plexiglass, and warehouse workers received an increase of 3 dollars an hour during the pandemic.

We have shown that if Canadians take collective action, we can change the behaviour of dollar stores. But only if we take action now.

Sign the petition calling on Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to ban toxic dollar store junk.

More information