“We live in a world commercializing on everything where money is involved, and this has speeded production of everything but human lives, in order to fill the demand of the people.
“This has caused many scientists to overlook the dangerous effects that such fast production has on the health of the people.”
—The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, “How to Eat to Live,” Book 1, page 108
While large retail companies strive to advance their revenue, many neglect to protect their consumers from poisonous products and packaging.
A recently released report, titled “The 2024 Retailer Report Card,” by environmental health research and advocacy group Toxic-Free Future and its Mind the Store program exposes some of the largest retailers in the United States and Canada for failure to protect their consumers from toxic chemicals and plastics found in the products and packaging they sell.
In their report, the Toxic-Free Future (TFF), in consultation with key partners, leading retailers, and experts in the field, assesses and scores 50 major U.S.- and Canada-located retailers using their “Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace” points-based grading system.
This grading system focuses on the following four areas of corporate safer chemical policies, solutions and practices:
• Corporate Commitment: The assessment of how well retailers utilize safer chemical policies, participate in the Chemical Footprint Project, collaborate externally, and back public policies.
• Transparency: The assessment of retailers’ awareness of hazardous chemicals and plastics in products and packaging they sell, transparency with consumers regarding said hazardous materials, and actions taken to hold suppliers accountable for their compliance with restrictions on hazardous materials, or lack thereof.
• Ban the Bad: The assessment of the amount of hazardous chemicals and plastics within retailers’ current inventory, as well as their quantifiable goals and progression to condense and eliminate high-priority hazardous chemicals, chemical classes, and plastics of high concern.
• Safer Solutions: The assessment of retailers’ implementation of safer solutions. This includes the sale of truly safer products; financial investments in safer solutions, and actions being made to ensure suppliers are moving towards safer chemicals and products.
Through their assessments, the report finds that on average, retailers score as low as a D+ as their overall grade. With 80 percent of retailers losing points largely in the categories of safer solutions, for most, low grades resulted from their inaction to implement safer policies and alternatives to eliminate toxic chemicals and plastics from their stores.
In the assessment of safer solutions, the report finds that retailers were least likely to invest in, implement or track safer chemical practices. This reflects the minimal progress made to enforce corporate safer chemical policies, solutions and practices—even after retailers are made aware of hazardous chemicals in the products and packaging distributed in their stores.
Another category retailers underperformed in was transparency. In the assessment of transparency, the report finds that 54 percent of retailers often fail to obtain a comprehension report from their suppliers on the chemical ingredients found in their products and packaging before selling them.
Consequently, retailers are unable to both appropriately access the hazards of such products and clearly communicate the presence of hazardous ingredients to their consumers.
While retailer companies like Apple (A), Sephora (A-), Target (A-), Walmart (A-), Whole Foods Market (B), IKEA (B), and Ulta Beauty (B-) earned the highest marks on their report card, several other well-known retailers failed to reach such health heights.
Of the 50 retailers examined across more than 200,000 stores, 17 received the failing grade of an (F), including 7-Eleven, Five Below, Chipotle, LL Flooring (Lumber Liquidators), Macy’s, McDonald’s, Nordstrom, Sally Beauty, Subway, Trader Joe’s, and Yum!, among others.
Additionally, on average, the lowest collective grades among the retailers evaluated were received by restaurants and dollar store chains. Thus, revealing their dire need to advance their policies and practices to protect consumers.
The Final Call newspaper reached out to dollar store chains for comments but has not yet received a response.
Risks for vulnerable communities
While dollar store chains’ inadequate grades (Dollar Tree, D and Dollar General, D+) are enough to raise concern alone, the retailers’ easy accessibility to vulnerable communities causes an even greater concern.
According to studies by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, a national movement to eliminate toxins from dollar stores, 53 percent of tested products sold in dollar stores contain at least one hazardous chemical.
Program assistant for the campaign and sociologist Nona Chai says this lends to a cycle of chemical injustices that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
“These larger dollar store chains—Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc., operate with over 36,000 stores combined across the U.S. (which is more than Walmart) and with combined annual sales totaling more than $60 billion. So, they’re huge,” Chai told The Final Call when asked why focusing on toxins in dollar store chain products is significant.
Dollar stores can be found in almost every part of the country, selling everything from canned goods to skin care products to children’s toys at some of the lowest retail prices on the market.
As a result, many low-income and non-White families rely on dollar stores as their only option to obtain various household necessities and desires within their limited budget. However, the accessibility of dollar stores’ cheap prices comes at an expensive cost to customers’ health.
According to a 2023 study at Tufts University School of Medicine, “Dollar stores are growing as food retailers in the U.S.” The study found that, “households with more purchases at dollar stores also tend to be lower-income and headed by people of color.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan like his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned about the “profits over people” approach by many retailers. In his book, “A Torchlight for America,” in the chapter, “The Merchants Of Death,”
Minister Farrakhan writes in part, “There’s tremendous profit in promoting the death-dealing lifestyles that many of us lead. You may not believe it but the leading promoters of our destructive lifestyles are the United States government, the food and drug industries and the medical community.”
There is reason for concern when it comes to the chemicals, additives and preservatives in foods and products that are consumed and used by millions of people daily.
Ph.D., biomedical scientist, Dr. Brianna X Alexander-Philips says such chemicals can negatively impact the human body on a cellular level—resulting in the development of various adverse health outcomes. This includes, but is not limited to, cancers, hormone disruptions, reproductive health issues, and compromised immune systems.
“We have to be mindful of how the body uses what we consume. So, anything that you consume, your body is going to try to break down,” Dr. Brianna X told The Final Call. She explained the difficulty of the body breaking down foods and products containing harsh chemicals and plastics.
“When you are consuming [chemicals and plastics] that your body doesn’t recognize, it doesn’t know what to do with it. Sometimes, it is excreted through urine, for example, but other times, it could get stored deep in some of your organs,” she continued.
According to Dr. Brianna X, over time, the storing of such toxins in the body could introduce mutations in your DNA sequence. This then sets off a ripple effect of unhealthy disruption throughout your body.
“DNA in the body gets converted to RNA then RNA gets converted to protein. So, if there are changes structurally in the DNA because of a mutation [caused by the consumption of toxic chemicals and plastics], the protein is going to become defective. Proteins are very important in the body for everything from interactions and movements to cell division,” Dr. Brianna X explained.
That said, the call for healthier solutions must be of high priority to both retailers and consumers.
Moving forward with healthier solutions
However, although improvements to retailer policies would be great, the call for healthier solutions must be taken into the hands of the people themselves.
In a 2010 Final Call interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the divine leader, teacher and guide was asked about what he sees in the present and future concerning health, wellness, and what must be done.
“As you can see, we are learning more of the better foods to eat, but unfortunately our food growth is in the hands of those whom we call the ‘Merchants of Death.’ They’re not caring about how food is raised or how to protect the earth and its nurturing qualities.
Pesticides and chemicals are being used, hormones are used to grow livestock at faster rates and chemicals are used for the growth of vegetation; it may look good but in the end the product is toxic. This is why so many diseases are afflicting us.
So, we’re learning how to eat to live, what foods to choose, but now we must be willing to go to the earth and produce that food so that we can extend our days,” said Minister Farrakhan.
This divine insight and guidance has been echoed by Minister Farrakhan for decades, following the example of the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. In the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s books.
“How To Eat To Live,” Books One and Two, he warns people about poisonous chemicals being added to the food and water supply and the negative impact on health if people continuously consume them.
In both books, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad advises and divinely guides readers toward self-preservation instructing them to choose their food wisely, mastering the science of fasting, eating one meal a day, and also producing and growing their own food.
