Over a year ago I joined thousands of others and wrote a letter to Macy’s letting them know that I was concerned about toxic chemicals that may be in products they were selling. I was especially concerned about toxic flame retardants, which are common in upholstered furniture.
Flame retardants are bad news. They’ve been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption and other serious health problems, yet much of the furniture in our stores continues to be filled with these toxic chemicals. They are known to migrate out of couches and other furniture, get into the dust inside our homes and make their way into our bodies.
When I sent my letter to Macy’s my letter was one of thousands of emails that they received from customers encouraging them to address the harmful chemicals.
After much consumer pressure, Macy’s agreed to ensure the furniture they sell is free of toxic flame retardants.
Other big retailers, including Lowe’s, have also agreed to adopt policies to eliminate toxic chemicals in their furniture and flooring.
We want safer flooring and furniture from Berkshire Hathaway
Now the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Mind the Store campaign is asking one of the world’s richest people and one of America’s biggest investors in furniture and flooring retailers, Warren Buffett, to help stop the spread of these unnecessary and harmful chemicals that are getting into our homes.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns companies that are among the biggest retailers of furniture and flooring nationwide. These include the newest Nebraska Furniture Mart store in Texas that is expected to be the highest-volume furniture store in the U.S., with a projected billion dollars in sales in one year alone.
In 2012, Warren Buffet said, “taking shortcuts is not the pathway to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, nor is it an avenue toward satisfying customers. A company must invest in the key ingredients of profitability: its people, communities and the environment.” Warren Buffett has noted sustainability is integral to a company’s profitability – yet his retailers are lagging behind competitors when it comes to addressing toxic chemicals in furniture & flooring– clearly not the Buffett way.
IKEA, Macy’s, Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s and Lumber Liquidators are phasing out these same chemicals from furniture and/or flooring, so when will Warren Buffett catch up and do the same?
While not all furniture and flooring contains toxic chemicals, we are asking Berkshire Hathaway’s retailers to work with their suppliers to completely phase out these unnecessary and dangerous chemicals.
We know safer and cost effective alternatives to the toxic chemicals found in furniture and flooring are widely available. Warren Buffett has a responsibility to give consumers safe products, and getting rid of toxic chemicals is good for the environment, consumers’ health, and business.
Stand with the Mind the Store campaign and tell Warren Buffet to be a sustainability leader and invest in safe furniture and flooring.
Send a message to Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO Warren Buffett and its retailers today! Sign this petition to ask Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway to join other top retailers and invest in safe furniture and flooring.
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photo credit: Dreamer via photopin (license)
This is the best post I’ve read all week!
I think this is the best post I’ve read all week!
Over here in the UK furniture and carpets can only be sold if it has fire retardants sprayed on it by law,even second hand furniture must have the original label stating it is fire retardant.
Congrats on the Macy’s win! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all these companies stopped supplying us with toxic consumer goods (or bads, as the case may be). Just signed and shared petition. Thanks!
The reason carpets, mattresses, drapes, furniture, clothing are fire proof is because of the fire departments agitating to add fire retardant to everything. The longterm health consequences weren’t known at that point in time. This is an example of unintended side effects. The fire retardant is added per law and the only way to reverse this is by changing federal law. Manufacturers and sellers are simply following federal statues as written.
I suggest starting a petition on Change.org and getting the national fire department (whoever that is) on board to back it because they can torpedo the law.
I wonder how many fire personnel are injured due to exposure to the toxins from the fire retardant. I wonder what the cancer rates are in fire fighters. Perhaps if a link was found between higher cancer rates in fire fighters and the fire retardant source the law makers would support a reform of the fire retardant mandate?
It’s going to take changing the regulations at the federal government level to bring about the changes you seek. You have to go up the chain to the people who control the laws. Manufacturers and sellers can’t do anything about laws.
Good luck! I wish you well.