die, air fresheners, die!

Today I learned that Walgreens yanked three of its store brand air fresheners from shelves shortly after a bunch of environmental groups sent a huge petition, which included the results of lab tests on a bunch of air fresheners, to the EPA and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Walgreens made the top three worst offenders in terms of phthalate concentrations, so maybe that's why their stores have been so toxic.

[Related, but off-topic rant warning] I expect the reason that all drugstores, not just Walgreens, are so toxic is that they carry the same evil products -- pesticides, air fresheners, and Bounce, for example -- that conventional grocery stores do, but their stores are smaller, so the chemicals are more concentrated. We EIs make more noise about how Home Depot air will kill you, but that's just because we can, for the most part, avoid drugstores entirely.

You hear that, drugstores? We hate you. Craft stores, too, but we really can avoid you entirely, and keep in mind that our main demographic is middle-aged and older women stuck at home by themselves.

But back to the air fresheners. The industry's response can be summarized by

We don't think that the products, when they're used properly, cause a risk to consumers.

They think? That's not what Walgreens thought.