Tell Canada's grocery giants to protect workers and ditch toxic receipts

Headlines:

Canadian grocers urged to ban receipts containing cancer-linked chemicals - CTV News (August 20, 2019)

Health groups push for Canadian retailers to remove chemical-coated receipt paper - Global News (August 21, 2019)

Labour, environmental groups call on grocers to eliminate toxic receipts - Canadian Occupational Safety (August 22, 2019)

Every day, cashiers across Canada at Walmart and Sobeys-affiliated stores are exposed to high levels of hormone-disrupting bisphenols (like BPA and BPS) from receipts. Other major grocer chains like Loblaw, Metro, and Costco Canada have responded to calls to protect their cashiers and customers by getting rid of these toxic receipts. Walmart and Sobeys should do the same. As major grocery retailers in Canada, you have a responsibility to protect your cashiers and customers from harmful bisphenols on receipts and other thermal paper.

Exposure to bisphenols is increasingly linked to health conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, reproductive health problems, obesity, and hormone-related cancers such as breast and prostate cancer.

Everyone deserves a safe and healthy work environment. That’s why we, alongside Environmental Defence Canada, Breast Cancer Action Quebec, and Mind the Store, urge these companies to take immediate action. Toxic bisphenols are no longer needed on receipts because safer alternatives, such as bisphenol-free receipts, are readily available.

Tell Sobeys and Walmart to protect their cashiers and customers by getting rid of receipts coated with hormone disrupting bisphenols today.

Name:

E-mail:

Message:

Dear Sobeys Inc. and Wal-Mart Canada Corp.,

As major grocery retailers in Canada, you have a responsibility to protect your cashiers and customers from harmful bisphenols on receipts and other thermal paper. Every day, your workers are facing greater health risks because of exposure to bisphenols (such as BPA or BPS) on the receipts used across your stores.

Research by Environmental Defence Canada shows that body levels of BPA and BPS can increase more than 100 times after handling receipts for the equivalent of a full work shift. You have a responsibility to ensure that employees are protected from workplace chemical hazards and you have the market power and resources to switch to non-toxic receipt paper. In the absence of adequately protective government regulations, action by retailers like you is imperative.

I urge you to make a commitment to stop using bisphenol-based receipts and to complete the roll-out of safer thermal paper alternatives in your stores as soon as practically possible. As employers of thousands of cashiers and workers, your action on this issue will help reduce workers’ and consumers’ exposure to harmful bisphenols.

Sincerely,

Verification

Canada's Private Sector Union

Tell Canada's grocery giants to protect workers and ditch toxic receipts