Target this week laid out a new policy that pressures manufacturers of beauty supplies and household cleaners to remove harmful chemicals from their products, one of the most expansive initiatives from a major retailer to give
consumers safer options for what they use on their faces and kitchen counters.
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...
