Second request to companies
September 17, 2007
Dear CEO,
On June 22nd and again on July 10th Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) sent a letter requesting information about your current labeling practices for household cleaning products. We have not yet received a response from your company. On behalf of thousands of women across the country, we formally request that you add full ingredient labeling to your packaging. Furthermore, we ask you to work towards removing ingredients that may be harmful from your products. We would appreciate a response to this letter and request by Friday, October 12, 2007.
In July
2007, Women's Voices for the Earth released a report entitled "Household
Hazards: Potential Hazards of Home Cleaning Products."
The report
garnered significant public attention.
For example, the report was covered in the following news outlets:
- Front page of the San Francisco Chronicle (see enclosed copy)
- Front page of the Seattle Post Intelligencer
- The New York Post
- Numerous Spanish-speaking outlets, including Univision TV & Spanish CNN
- NPR Marketplace
In
addition, thousands of consumers have contacted us regarding the report:
- Over 12,000 individuals visited our website to download the report and appendix in the weeks following the release;
- Online, new bloggers post links to the report every week;
- WVE’s petition, which asks manufacturers of household cleaners to remove toxic ingredients from their products and disclose ingredients on their packaging, receives new endorsements each and every day from consumers nationwide;
- Women are contacting WVE daily with questions about the report and concerns about cleaners.
The message is clear. Consumers want to know what ingredients are in the products they use in their homes and they want to be informed about the potential effects of these chemicals on their health and the health of their families.
The best
way to provide this information to consumers, at the point of purchase, is
through full disclosure of ingredients on product labels. Please refer to the
enclosed fact sheet for more information about why product labeling is
necessary.
Long-standing
and trusted companies such as yours provide products to improve people's homes.
We hope that you will take this opportunity to renew your stated commitment by
agreeing to provide full disclosure of product ingredients and by working to
remove hazardous chemicals from your formulas. WVE would like to include your
company in a list of leading cleaning products manufacturers who are working to
improve the health and safety of consumer products.
Women’s
Voices for the Earth represents a rapidly growing constituency of women
nationally who want to make informed choices about the products they consume.
In the coming months, WVE will continue to inform women across the country
about our Safe Cleaning Products Initiative.
We are not only engaging women through the media, our website, and
through our personal networks, but we are also collaborating with many other
organizations across the country to disseminate information about our campaign
in local communities. We look forward to
notifying them about your company’s policy on ingredient labeling. We kindly request a response to this letter
in writing by Friday, October 12th, 2007.
If you
have any questions, you may contact me at (406) 543-3747 or by email at
alex@womenandenvironment.org. Thank you
for your consideration of our request.
Sincerely,
Alexandra
Gorman
Director
of Science and Research
Household Cleaners Taken to Court in New York