Home Depot Class Action Says Klean Strip Product is Toxic

A recent class action lawsuit claims that Home Depot knowingly sold toxic Klean Strip paint thinner which contains deadly ingredients.

Klean Strip reportedly contains the chemical methylene chloride.

According to the Home Depot class action lawsuit, this chemical has been shown to pose “unreasonable risks” and has even been implicated in deaths around the country.

Products with the chemical are already banned in Europe markets and the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to enact a ban on the chemical reportedly resulted in a lawsuit by public health advocates.

Although formal regulatory action hasn’t been taken yet, the plaintiff says several retailers including Lowe’s, Walmart, and Sherman-Williams announced in May 2018 that they would no longer sell paint strippers containing methylene chloride.

In June 2018, Home Depot reportedly followed with their own announcement. However, instead of immediately ceasing to sell the products, the home improvement store reportedly pledged to phase the products out by the end of 2018.

The company’s statement read: “Over the past few years, The Home Depot has led the industry in creating chemical standards for multiple categories including carpet, paint, insulation, flooring, live goods and cleaning products. To build upon our strategy to maintain continual improvement in health and environmental safety for products, we have added many alternative chemical paint removers, and will phase out of paint removal products that contain methylene chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) by the end of 2018.”

The decision to continue selling these products through the end of the year reportedly had real consequences, according to the Home Depot class action lawsuit.

In October 2018, plaintiff George Munoz allegedly purchased Klean Strip Premium Stripper from a Home Depot location in Tampa, Florida.

Despite following label instructions and taking precautions to protect himself, Munoz reportedly developed a “significant” lung infection after using the product which forced him to be hospitalized. Munoz claims that his lung infection was a direct result of using Klean Strip Premium Stripper with methylene chloride.

The Home Depot paint stripper class action lawsuit argues that Home Depot should have stopped selling products with methylene chloride immediately following their announcement.

Munoz argues that the retailer continued to sell products in order to maintain their profits and prevent losses.

“With the proposed EPA ban on products containing methylene chloride dating back several years and deaths related to the chemical first chronicled in 1980, the home improvement industry, and industry leader Home Depot, were clearly incredibly late to remove these products from stores,” the Klean Strip class action lawsuit states. “Worse, though, was that the phase out approach by Home Depot was an obvious measure to ensure that revenue would not be lost from existing merchandise.”

Munoz seeks to represent a Class of consumers who purchased Klean Strip Premium Stripper and other paint stripping products containing methylene chloride from Home Depot since January 2014.

The Home Depot paint stripper class action lawsuit seeks damages, court costs, interest, and attorneys’ fees.

Munoz and the proposed Class are represented by James P. Gitkin of Salpeter Gitkin LLP.

The Home Depot Toxic Paint Stripper Class Action Lawsuit is Munoz v. Home Depot USA Inc., Case No. 8:19-cv-00251-WFJ-SPF, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.