 The big-box retailer has revealed details of its new Sustainable Product Standard, a program to assess the safety of more than 7,500 household cleaners and beauty, cleaning and baby care products sold in Target's 1,700-plus stores. Target's crackdown on hazardous chemicals and its tough demands on the largely unregulated personal care products industry is yet another landmark in the movement for safer consumable goods, a global phenomenon driven largely by consumers and activist groups. "Consumer demand for transparency and safer products has grown too loud for companies to ignore," said Stacy Malkan, a co-founder of the San Francisco-based Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which last month pressured Target to sell safer beauty products. "The largest retailers are now, for the first time, indicating in a very public way that they want their vendors to move away from the most hazardous chemicals and be more forthcoming about what's in their products." Target also will collaborate with the campaign, a coalition of environmental and health organization, to create new safety standards for rating cosmetics beginning in 2014. The personal care products industry maintains all its goods... |
