Tell McDonald’s: Time to Take off the Toxic Gloves

We’ve just released a new report—the largest study of its kind, to date—that found one out of seven vinyl or PVC food service gloves contained toxic chemicals called phthalates (THAL-eights) that can leach into food.

Worse? Two-thirds of the popular fast food restaurants we visited were using vinyl gloves to handle and serve food.

Some PVC gloves from McDonald’s tested positive for phthalates. (See how all restaurants ranked here.) We’re calling on McDonald’s, the top restaurant by sales in the U.S., to be a market leader and switch away from using PVC gloves—the only way to ensure that food service gloves won’t contaminate diners’ meals with toxic phthalates.

Polyethylene gloves, which don’t contain any plasticizer chemicals, or frequent hand-washing with soap and water are safer and widely available alternatives to vinyl gloves.

Urge McDonald’s to be a market leader and replace toxic vinyl gloves with safer alternatives!

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently called for U.S. government action to keep these dangerous chemicals out of food, and Europe, Japan, and the state of Maine have all banned or restricted phthalates from food contact materials, including food-handling gloves.

Dining out is linked to higher exposure to toxic phthalates—and phthalates exposure is linked to genital malformations in baby boys, ADHD in children, and infertility later in life. These dangerous chemicals don’t belong in anyone’s restaurant meal. 

Subway, Panera Bread, and Starbucks restaurants visited by researchers were already using safer polyethylene gloves. Why isn’t McDonald’s?

Please, send a message to McDonald’s today. 

Thank you for taking action! 

Want to read the full study, and learn more about this work to get toxic phthalates out of the U.S. food supply? Visit ToxicFreeFood.org.