| Dear Katy, Deadly household paint products remains on Ace Hardware's shelves even though four people have died after being exposed to the toxic chemicals they contain since the EPA proposed a ban last year. Despite repeated calls to stop selling these products, Ace Hardware, one of the nation's largest home improvement chains, continues to sell popular paint strippers containing methylene chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP), which are highly toxic chemicals linked to lung and liver cancer, fetal development issues, miscarriage, stillbirth and neurotoxicity.1 Thanks in part to more than 50,000 CREDO members and continued activism by our allies like Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, major retailers like Lowe's, The Home Depot, Sherwin-Williams and Walmart have already caved to massive public pressure and announced plans to discontinue selling these toxic products.2,3 We must speak out now to demand Ace follows suit and stops selling these deadly paint strippers now. Tell Ace Hardware: Stop selling deadly paint strippers immediately. Click here to sign the petition. Every year, 60,000 workers and more than two million consumers are exposed to these toxic chemicals, and since 1980, at least 64 people have died from exposure to methylene chloride.4,5 In early 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed banning methylene chloride and NMP from paint products, but after taking heat from the chemical industry, the agency announced plans to "indefinitely postpone" bans on these dangerous chemicals in consumer products.6 As consumers, we have the power to demand that Ace takes a stand, even if Trump's EPA refuses to act. As a mother of one of the victims put it, "My son shouldn't have died this way and no one else should lose a loved one to these deadly products."7 We've won this fight before with other retailers, and we must do it again now to prevent any more senseless tragedies. Tell Ace Hardware: Stop selling deadly paint strippers immediately. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/ace_paint?t=7&akid=30189%2E12967895%2EK4yt7Q Thanks for everything you do. Josh Nelson, Co-Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: - Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, "Health Advocates Kick Off Week of Action Urging Lowe's and EPA to Ban Toxic Paint Strippers," May 7, 2018.
- CBS News, "Home Depot, Sherwin-Williams and Lowe's phasing out paint strippers with toxic chemical," June 21, 2018.
- Federal Register, "Methylene Chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone; Regulation of Certain Uses Under TSCA Section 6(a)," Jan. 19, 2017.
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, "U.S. deaths from methylene chloride."
- Sheila Kaplan, "E.P.A. Delays Bans on Uses of Hazardous Chemicals," The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2017.
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, "Health Advocates Kick Off Week of Action Urging Lowe's and EPA to Ban Toxic Paint Strippers," May 7, 2018.
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