Local Businesses Say 'No' to Triclosan
03/04/2010
Area businesses say they won't use, sell products with Triclosan (listed HERE)
March 3, 2010
NEW BRUNSWICK — A group of 21 area businesses and organizations announced yesterday they will no longer use or sell products containing an antibacterial pesticide triclosan.
Representatives from the businesses held a press conference Wednesday at the George Street Co-op to say they've joined the "Wash Your Hands of Triclosan' campaign, a project of the nonprofit consumer group Food and Water Watch.
Triclosan is an antibacterial agent used in soaps, deodorants, cosmetics and other personal care products. Food and Water Watch says the pesticide has been linked to antibiotic resistance and can affect male and female reproductive hormones, which it says could possibly increase the risk of cancer.
Due to its prevalence in common supplies, triclosan has been found in wastewater, rivers and streams, and marine life.
Jim Walsh, Eastern Region director for Food and Water Watch, said even though triclosan-free products sometimes cost more, products with triclosan have much higher long-term costs.
“When you look at the cost of triclosan to the environment and the public health, it's huge,” he said.
Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the use of the chemical in consumer products, though Canada and Japan have both adopted restrictions. Ironically, a 2005 FDA panel ruled that antibacterial soaps are no more effective than non-triclosan soaps at fighting infection.
Highland Park Borough Councilman Jon Erickson said his borough's Board of Health will be discussing triclosan and could recommend that the council pass a resolution calling for the borough to stop buying or using triclosan products in the future.
Nicole Wines, who shops at the George Street Co-op, said she already avoids products with triclosan, though she said in some stores that's not very easy.
“You have to search for them,” she said. “Sometimes they're all the way on the bottom shelf or sometimes there's just one choice.”
Janet Tammero, manager of the George Street Co-op, said to her knowledge her store, which specializes in natural and organic products, did not sell products with triclosan even before signing up for the no-triclosan campaign. But she said consumers need to fight if they want the chemical left out of the products they use everyday.
“We can make a difference through your dollars and my dollars,” she said. “If the public doesn't buy it, they won't sell it.”
The co-op is offering a 10-percent discount on a triclosan free product to anyone who trades in a product with triclosan. The triclosan product will then be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, she said.
JARED KALTWASSER • STAFF WRITER •Home News Tribune