September 24, 2007

Javed Ahmed, CEO
Reckitt Benckiser
PO Box 225
Parsippany, NJ 07054-0225

Dear Mr. Ahmed,

On June 22^nd and again on July 10^th Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) sent a letter requesting information about your current labeling practices for household cleaning products.  We have not yet received a response from your company. On behalf of thousands of women across the country, we formally request that you add full ingredient labeling to your packaging.  Furthermore, we ask you to work towards removing ingredients that may be harmful from your products.  We would appreciate a response to this letter and request by Friday, October 12, 2007.

In July 2007, Women's Voices for the Earth released a report entitled "Household Hazards: Potential Hazards of Home Cleaning Products."

The report garnered significant public attention.  For example, the report was covered in the following news outlets:

• Front page of the San Francisco Chronicle (see enclosed copy)
• Front page of the Seattle Post Intelligencer
• The New York Post
• Numerous Spanish-speaking outlets, including Univision TV & Spanish CNN
• NPR Marketplace

 
In addition, thousands of consumers have contacted us regarding the report:

• Over 12,000 individuals visited our website to download the report and appendix in the weeks following the release;
• Online, new bloggers post links to the report every week;
• WVE’s petition, which asks manufacturers of household cleaners to remove toxic ingredients from their products and disclose ingredients on their packaging, receives new endorsements each and every day from consumers nationwide;
• Women are contacting WVE daily with questions about the report and concerns about cleaners.

The message is clear.  Consumers want to know what ingredients are in the products they use in their homes and they want to be informed about the potential effects of these chemicals on their health and the health of their families. 

The best way to provide this information to consumers, at the point of purchase, is through full disclosure of ingredients on product labels. Please refer to the enclosed fact sheet for more information about why product labeling is necessary.

Long-standing and trusted companies such as yours provide products to improve people's homes. In the Reckitt Benckiser Global Policy Statement on Product Safety it states:

 
“Reckitt Benckiser will actively promote responsibility and concern for the safety of our customers, our employees and the general public at all levels of the company and in all aspects of our businesses It will be the Policy of Reckitt Benckiser to:...3.  Continually assess products, packaging, labeling and raw materials to ensure the health and safety of the public and the company's customers and employees,” and “6.  Freely disclose product safety information on Reckitt Benckiser products through the release of relevant information to appropriate governmental, professional and business organisations, and to the public.”

We appreciate Reckitt Benckiser's strong stance on consumer health and safety and right-to-know.  We have identified several Reckitt Benckiser products including Easy Off, and Perk which contain 2-butoxyethanol which is linked to reproductive harm and Glass Plus which contains monoethanolamine which is linked to asthma.

 
We hope that you will take this opportunity to renew your stated commitment by agreeing to provide full disclosure of product ingredients and by working to remove hazardous chemicals from your formulas. WVE would like to include your company in a list of leading cleaning products manufacturers who are working to improve the health and safety of consumer products.

 
Women’s Voices for the Earth represents a rapidly growing constituency of women nationally who want to make informed choices about the products they consume. In the coming months, WVE will continue to inform women across the country about our Safe Cleaning Products Initiative.  We are not only engaging women through the media, our website, and through our personal networks, but we are also collaborating with many other organizations across the country to disseminate information about our campaign in local communities.  We look forward to notifying them about your company’s policy on ingredient labeling. We kindly request a response to this letter in writing by Friday, October 12th, 2007. 

 
If you have any questions, you may contact me at (406) 543-3747 or by email at alex@womenandenvironment.org.  Thank you for your consideration of our request.

 
Sincerely,

Alexandra Gorman
Director of Science and Research

Download a copy of the letter (.doc)