Home Depot is still selling paint strippers containing dangerous chemicals that have been linked to cancer—even though the EPA is considering a ban and the same chemicals have been banned in many uses across Europe.
The EPA could take years to make the right decision, especially with Donald Trump in the White House. Corporations like Home Depot should take the lead when it comes to safe products and stop stocking its shelves with chemicals it knows are poison.
We know we can make Home Depot do the right thing. Nearly three-quarters of a million SumOfUs members forced it to phase out bee-killing pesticides simply by raising our voices together. But as long as the EPA is dragging its feet, Home Depot will keep trying to profit from dangerous chemicals.
Tell the Home Depot to stop selling paint strippers laced with cancer-causing methylene chloride.
The EPA has proposed banning methylene chloride, the major chemical ingredient in many paint strippers and cleaners. In the short term, it will poison your nervous system and long-term exposure leads to liver cancer, lung cancer and death. Why would Home Depot keep these deadly products on its shelves, especially when there are safer alternatives available?
A corporation as big as Home Depot won’t go anywhere unless it’s pushed—and we know how to push it. Not only have we made Home Depot pull neonic pesticides from its stores, our friends at Safer Chemicals got it to agree to take toxic phthalates from its vinyl flooring. Home Depot is a huge public-facing company that depends on its reputation for safety and responsibility. As long as it carries products the EPA wants to ban, that reputation is in serious jeopardy.
Join us and demand the Home Depot pull toxic methylene chloride from its shelves.
More information
The Center for Public Integrity. 21 September 2015.