Please help us put Consumer Power to work!

Take action to eliminate the poison plastic TODAY by writing a letter to your local Target Store.

You can use the letter in the link below, or compose one of your own. Mail it or hand it to the store manager in person!

Sample Letter to Target

For more information, go the PVC Information page at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice

Introduction - Why is the Day of Action about Target Stores?

You will join people all around the world letting Target know its time to clean up their act and
phase out PVC, the poison plastic. Target is one of the nation's largest retailers that sells many
common products such as shower curtains, children's toys and baby products made out of or
packaged in polyvinyl chloride, the poison plastic.

Are Target’s Products Safe?
Target may have the latest hip designs, but their aisles are filled with products made from
chemicals linked to cancer. Target sells many products made out of or packaged in polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), the poison plastic. These products are dangerous to our health and environment
from start to finish—in the factory, at home, and in the trash—releasing poisonous chemicals
linked to cancer and birth defects.

Target’s PVC Products Manufactured With Dangerous Chemicals
The production of Target’s PVC products requires toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing
vinyl chloride monomer and ethylene dichloride. PVC factories are disproportionately located
in low-income or minority communities and have been found to expose workers and neighbors to
dangerous chemicals.

What’s that Toxic Stench? Target’s PVC Shower Curtains
Target’s chic PVC products are useless without the addition of toxic additives. Children
chewing on vinyl toys can be exposed to chemicals linked to reproductive harm. These
chemicals are so bad they’ve been banned from use in toys in Europe. The familiar new Target
shower curtain smell is poisonous chemicals being released from the curtain in your home. An
EPA study found that one new vinyl shower curtain can lead to elevated levels of dangerous
toxics in your home for over one month.

PVC Pollutes Recycling Materials
PVC products sold by Target cannot be effectively recycled due to the many different toxic
additives in the product, which can contaminate the recycling batch. Just one PVC bottle can
contaminate a recycling load of 100,000 recyclable bottles!

Safe and Cost-Effective Alternatives Are Available
The good news is that safe, cost-effective alternatives are available for virtually every PVC
product or packaged material sold by Target. In fact, Target already sells some products, such as
PEVA shower curtains, out of safer plastics.

Target Lags Behind Other Retailers in Taking Action on PVC
Last year, Wal-Mart committed to phase out private label PVC packaging in two years. Other
companies phasing out PVC include Nike, Microsoft, Ikea, H&M, and Johnson and Johnson.