A Better Way To Clean

Household Hazards, a recent report from Women’s Voices for the Earth should be required reading for just about everyone who cares about the health and safety of themselves and their families. The Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE), is a “national, women-centered environmental health and justice organization that works to eliminate or substantially reduce environmental toxics impacting human health and to increase women’s participation in environmental decision-making.” This report kicks off their “Safe Cleaning Products Initiative” and has already drawn well deserved national attention. We can only hope that it sparks a long overdue dialogue about the relationship between consumers, chemicals, and health.

The report calls attention to the fact that manufacturers of household cleaning products and cosmetics have no obligation to reveal most of the chemicals that are in the products that they sell. With very rare exceptions, there is simply no way to know exactly what you are buying. This leaves the consumer to trust that the manufacturer or perhaps the government has determined that the product is safe “for consumers who use them as directed.” But, this trust would be misplaced. This well referenced report summarizes the findings of studies implicating several of the chemicals commonly found in household cleaning products with an increased risk of asthma, infertility, and other health problems. They go on to challenge manufacturers to come clean and list their ingredients publically.

Apparently, the manufacturers and government regulators either don’t believe these findings, or that this is a problem. With rare exceptions, most manufacturers don’t and won’t list the ingredients in their products. The authors of this report requested full disclosure of ingredients from over 20 manufacturers and, thus far, have only heard back from 3. Two of those hid behind the concern that their proprietary formula is a valuable trade secret that must be protected (unlike your health). However, as one of the authors of this report pointed out, any competitor wanting to copy a specific product would simply have it analyzed. Another company responded that there isn’t enough room on the label to list all of the ingredients. I’m sure we would all be satisfied if they just listed them on their website.

Those of you who are regular readers of A Better Way to Clean will recognize a common theme here. Whenever you bring a cleaning product of any type into your home, especially those that you will be used frequently and over the long term, you accept the risk from exposing you and your family to every chemical in the bottle or box. Small amounts of everything you use are inhaled or absorbed and end up in your body. Remember that nobody cares about the health and safety of your family as much as you do and that buying these products should be informed decisions. However, you cannot make informed decisions if you don’t know what you are buying and you can’t know what you are buying if the manufacturer refuses to tell you.

So what can you do? To start with, become an informed consumer and protector of your health and the health of your family. Read this report, sign the petition, and support the efforts Women’s Voices for the Earth, and like organizations such as the Environmental Working Group. Look for products from companies that list the ingredients and demand full disclosure from companies that you patronize. Vote where you shop.

Or, you can ignore the evidence and take comfort in the words of Brian Sansoni, an industry spokesman from the Soap and Detergent Association: “There is no need to play ‘Fear Factor’ here. This ingredient usage in cleaning products is not known to be of concern for consumers who use these products as directed,”

Thanks Brian, now we feel much better.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 7:03 am and is filed under Clean Hands, Clean Living, General, What Does That Mean?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.