Rite Aid has established a company chemical policy and has expanded their restricted substance list (RSL) from 8 to 69 substances. This updated list now includes additional parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde donors, nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) and triclocarban.
Currently, the main objective of this chemical management policy is to ensure the products that are being sold are safe and healthy for all consumers. Rite Aid aims to eliminate the following 8 substances from their own formulated brands by 2020: triclosan, formaldehyde, toluene, butylparaben, propylparaben, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP) and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs). However, with 4500 stores across America, Rite Aid hopefully would like to extend this policy to cover all products sold within their stores.
Furthermore, the new chemical policy includes the following 6 initiatives for 2018:
– Public disclosure of its RSL and expansion of the list to include a total of 69 substances
– Move from survey-based assessments of RSL compliance to automated screening using UL’s WERCSmart and PurView platforms
– Expand its chemical policy to cover formulated products made by national brands. These will be screened against the RSL and the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) list
– Align its activities with other retail sector initiatives
– Encourage suppliers to avoid ingredients on the RSL and BPC list, and use alternatives identified as safer chemicals by the EPA’s Safer Choice programme
– Promote ingredient disclosure to consumers by suppliers – either on the packaging or online – (have not begun widespread implementation of this initiative)
In developing its policy, Rite Aid has been working with NGO Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and its Mind the Store Campaign which ranks US retailers for their efforts to eliminate chemicals of concern.
With the shift in health, safety and environmental concerns expressed by consumers, we are seeing many more corporations adopting and implementing chemical policies. Aside, from Rite Aid, Walmart and Sam’s Club have both implemented similar chemical policies. Some of the initiatives set out by Walmart involve full online ingredient disclosure and the reduction, restriction and elimination of 8 high priority chemicals within their products.
For more information, check out the following links or contact Nexreg on how to ensure compliance with these chemical policies.
Nexreg Compliance
