Teens Turning Green is a student led movement devoted to education and advocacy around environmentally and socially responsible choices for individuals, schools, and communities. The movement seeks to promote global sustainability by identifying and eliminating toxic exposures that permeate our lives, often unknowingly, yet threaten public and environmental health. What began in the Bay Area in 2005 now has a presence at elementary, middle and high schools, universities, and student organizations across US , as well as a strong virtual platform and media presence. The TTG chapters lead grassroots efforts that aim to raise awareness, encourage behavior change, and lobby for policy that will lessen local and global impact.
Abercrombie & Fitch has over 300 stores in the US. They all have the same “atmosphere”. This means dark lights, loud music, provocative advertisements and posters, and their signature scent, which comes in a perfume bottle called “Fierce”. All of these stores have ventilation systems that spray “Fierce” both inside and outside their stores every day, each 30 minutes. (The inside affects the employees and customers, but the outside sprayers effect everyone that passes by the store as well as the environment.) In addition, employees of the store are asked to go around and spray the perfume manually every 2 hours.
Many people have reported health reactions to the perfume, including onsets of asthma attacks, inability to breathe, etc. One manager at a store local to me has anonymously said that previous to working at A&F, she had no allergies, and now must take allergy pills to be able to go to work every day.
Teens Turning Green found out that A&F had never done any testing on this perfume, and there was no guarantee whether or not it was safe to be breathing.
Teens Turning Green partnered with the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to do a study on Fierce and similar perfumes www.ewg.org/notsosexy . They have found that Fierce contained known neurotoxins, carcinogens, and hormone disruptors.
The kids from TTG sent a video-letter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BC1F0It9ck to the CEO of Abercrombie, who did not respond to any of our concerns.
So, for the past few months, Emily Packer has been planning this national protest.
On this coming Tuesday, September 28th, people will stand outside of Abercrombie & Fitch stores in Dallas, San Francisco, and New York, wearing masks and holding signs, demanding that A&F stop poisoning us with their perfume. (Details at www.teensturninggreen.org )
Teens Turning Green hope that this protest will send a message to the CEO, and hope that it will encourage other similar stores to take positive steps to address health issues before we ask them to. Ultimately, Teens Turning Green hope that this protest will help stop the spray. If not, the next step for the Teens Turning Green campaign would be to form legislation banning the outdoor sprayers and mandating the posting of specific warning signs educating the employees and potential customers about what they are being exposed to.
No doubt our friends are doing a very good job. I totally support they’re cause. I would like to invite simple citizen in our city (one of the most beautiful in the world) not to through the garbage on the wrong bins or on the streets…
Remember every single piece of paper regardless how small contributes to the pollution of our city… not to mention the useless usage of cars or motorcycles where we could use city transportation’s lines.
Suggestions ? You are welcomed to leave comments.
