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Inept But At Your Service: Can You Trust Your Local Hardware Store?

Recommendations

Main Report

Remedying the retail hardware store’s careless approach to environmental hazards will not be an easy change.  The stores will need to train clerks and enhance their product lines.   Based on IKE’s experience, the stores will not change until their customers demand improvement.  Therefore, IKE makes the following recommendations.

Retail Hardware Store Owners and Operators

While the survey was conducted in retail hardware stores that serve Indianapolis, IKE believes the problem is widespread across the nation.  Fixing the problem in Indianapolis alone would continue to threaten the health and safety of thousands of child outside of the city.  Therefore, IKE recommends that all stores owners and operators do the following:

·                    If your employees give advice, ensure that they are trained and competent to give advice.  Clerks are usually hired because they communicate well with the customers.  Hardware stores have a responsibility to make sure they communicate accurately as well. 

·                    Stock the supplies a customer needs to work safely with lead-based paint hazards.

·                    Follow the advice of the National Paint and Coatings Association and make the combined EPA brochures "Protect Your Family from Lead Hazards" and "Keep It Clean" Pamphlet (in English and Spanish) available at no cost to all customers.

·                    Make the outstanding “Lead Paint Safety Field Guide for Painting, Home Maintenance, and Renovation Work” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD Field Guide) available to customers and clerks for sale or for reference. 

·                    Require that clerks read the HUD Field Guide and the EPA Pamphlet and be tested to confirm they know the material;

·                    Require managers and other employees of the paint department to complete awareness training on lead-based paint and lead-safe work practices - possibly through the free retailer training NPCA is offering on-line at http://www.leadsafetraining.org/npca/ or by attending one of their free contractor-focused classes being offered throughout the country (see www.leadsafetraining.org for a schedule and locations).

·                    Comply with Indiana’s pesticide consultant rules and provide advice to customers that is safest for children’s health.

Store Customers

Until the hardware stores decide to take control of the problem, customers should:

·                    Beware.  Don’t trust the advice you get from your store clerk until the stores take responsibility for their employees.

·                    Demand more.  Insist that stores train their clerks and recommend the use of lead-safe work practices and the supplies to implement those practices in the store.

·                    Provide feedback to the stores through their website’s customer service line

o       Menards – www.menards.com

o       Lowes – www.lowes.com

o       Home Depot – www.homedepot.com

o       Ace Hardware – www.acehardware.com

o       Do-It-Best Hardware – www.doitbest.com

o       True Value Hardware – www.truevalue.com  

o       Sears Hardware – www.sears.com

·                    File complaints with the Indiana State Chemist when pesticide advice is given without a warning sign present or when the advice is dangerous.  Contact 800-893-6637 or see details for filing a complaint under the “Pesticide Section” at www.isco.purdue.edu.

·                    Provide IKE with the results of your visit by entering your experiences – good or bad – on IKE’s website at www.ikecoalition.org/stores.  

·                    Contact Improving Kids’ Environment at 317-442-3973 or mccabe@ikecoalition.org if you have questions or concerns about a hardware store’s response to your questions about lead-based paint, pesticides or other environmental hazards.

Community Health Advocates

Community health advocates who want to improve community health should reproduce the survey in their community.  Based on IKE’s survey, it is difficult to determine what motivates the stores.  But if the stores perceived that they will be evaluated on a routine basis across the nation, they may accept responsibility for training employees, holding clerks accountable, and providing essential supplies.  Contact Tom Neltner of Improving Kids’ Environment at 317-442-3973 or mccabe@ikecoalition.org to discuss how to get it done in your community.