Discovery of toxic children products leads to $200K Dollar Tree agreement

Dollar Tree will have to pay nearly $200,000 after toxic school supplies were found during an investigation by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General (AG).

Washington State AG Bob Ferguson announced in a news release on Thursday a legally binding resolution requiring the national retailer to pay $190,000 to thoroughly test its children’s products. According to Ferguson, Dollar Tree had illegal levels of toxic heavy metals lead and cadmium in its products.

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The news release stated to avoid a lawsuit, Greenbrier International, doing business as Dollar Tree, signed the agreement in King County Superior Court. The agreement requires Dollar Tree to ensure that the laboratories it uses outside of the U.S. follow the correct procedures to test for lead and cadmium. The methods then must be verified through an outside expert.

The Washington State Department of Ecology’s testing showed several children’s bracelets and pencil pouches sold at Dollar Tree stores in Washington contained illegal levels of the toxic chemicals. More specifically, some pencil pouches contained more than four times the state and federal limit for lead or four times the limit for cadmium.

The Washington State Department of Ecology found four times the amount of legal lead in some pencil pouches sold at Dollar Tree stores. (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office)

The products tested were sold in stories in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

According to the news release, when the AG’s Office informed Dollar Tree, the company came back with documentation from laboratories outside of the U.S. showing the levels were not illegal. The AG’s Office then had an outside expert investigate, revealing errors and missing information.

Dollar Tree cooperated with the investigation and removed the products from its stores, as stated by the news release.

Dollar Tree sent MyNorthwest a statement on Friday:

Dollar Tree is committed to selling quality products, maintaining a safe environment for associates and customers and complying with all laws and regulations. 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. We have worked cooperatively with Washington State to resolve this matter.”

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Lead, according to the AG’s Office, can cause a variety of neurological problems in children. Large amounts can lead to organ failure and death.

“When I buy products for my kids, I expect them to be safe from toxic metals,” Ferguson said in the news release. “Companies that sell products to children must ensure they are safe. If they don’t, they will hear from my office.”

To find more information about preventing lead poisoning, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.

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