by Grace Deng, Washington State Standard
August 3, 2024
Dollar Tree must test its children’s products more thoroughly after a state investigation found bracelets and pencil pouches in the company’s Washington stores with illegal levels of lead and cadmium, the attorney general’s office announced Thursday.
In order to avoid a lawsuit, Greenbrier International, which does business as Dollar Tree, entered a nationwide, legally binding agreement in King County Superior Court with the state of Washington requiring the major discount retail chain to ensure its laboratories outside the United States follow testing methods verified by independent experts.
The company will also pay $190,000 to Washington to pay legal fees and for “future enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act and environmental protection efforts.” The Consumer Protection Act is meant to protect Washington residents from unfair or deceptive business practices.
Testing by the Washington Department of Ecology found children’s bracelets and pencil pouches sold at Dollar Tree stores in 2018, 2019 and 2021 at times contained more than four times the federal limit of lead and four times the state limit for cadmium.
Dollar Tree cooperated with the investigation and removed the products from its stores, the attorney general’s office said.
The company provided documentation from laboratories outside of the United States showing that toxic metals fell within permissible levels — but an independent review of the tests showed they contained errors or missing information, according to state officials.
Lead can cause neurological problems in children and cadmium is a cancer-causing metal which can lead to kidney disease and fragile bones. There is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Both metals can cause death in extreme cases or through heavy exposure.
The agreement requires Greenbrier to implement specific reforms for the next five years, including using X-ray fluorescence technology to screen samples of imported children’s products, rotating testing of children’s products through different third-party laboratories annually and requiring laboratories to provide written procedures for lead and cadmium testing.
Greenbrier must also require a third-party expert and laboratory in the United States to audit its overseas testing using federal environmental and consumer protection standards.
In a statement to the Standard, Dollar Tree said it is “committed to selling quality products.”
“We have an advanced product testing program and will further enhance the product testing processes for our vendors and their products with the third-party testing laboratories,” a company spokesperson said.
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