Breath of fresh air: - HB Fuller stops selling its over-the-counter products that contain solvents

New Internationalist, April, 2000 by Casa Alianza

HB Fuller, the glue manufacturer which has profited for decades from Central American children inhaling its toxic and addictive Resistol glue products, has finally stopped selling its over-the-counter products that contain solvents. But the controversy surrounding the company is not over. HB Fuller currently faces charges regarding the sale of its toxic glue in Costa Rica.

And the company's shareholders are keeping a keen watch after US Senator Richard G Polanco urged the California Public Employees Retirement System, Fuller's twelfth-largest shareholder, to pressure HB Fuller to convert to non-toxic water-based glues. Senator Polanco explained that the continued sale of highly addictive and toxic glues abused by millions of street children in Central and South America would do shareholders more harm than good as it would `soon lead to legislative action and a likely consumer boycott of HB Fuller products'.