TIPS ON CLEANING PRODUCT INGREDIENT MYSTERIES

 

The Non-Toxic Times, January, 2000, Volume 1, Number 3

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/page.asp?id=1386

 

Everybody Loves A Mystery

Just ask Robert Stack: There's nothing like an unsolved mystery to get the blood going. So here's a megabyte of mysterious mayhem–The Case of the Clueless Consumer. Whodunnit? Our guess is Colonel Chemical in the cupboard with the cleaning product label. And here's why: most household cleaner labels just don't fess up to things the way they should. If there's one thing everyone should know about the labels on most household cleaners it's this: The most notable thing about them is what they're not telling you. Household cleaners are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a mission mandated by the 1960 Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act. According to the law, cleaning products need only tell you of any "immediate" hazard that might present itself should the product be incorrectly used. This is why you'll see the words "Danger", "Poison", "Warning", and "Caution" on product labels. (See Non-Toxic Times number 1). The law further stipulates that manufacturers must list (and we quote) "the common or usual or chemical name of the hazardous substance, or of each component, which contributes substantially to (this) hazard." That may sound okay, but we beg to disagree. Here's what's wrong with the all too pretty picture product labels paint:

• The vast majority of hazardous and/or toxic ingredients a cleaning product contains are not required to be listed. The law only demands that product labels warn of any "immediate" dangers and list the chemicals that create them. Labels don't have to tell us anything about the many other chemical compounds their products uses.
• And so they don't. Under the guise of protecting proprietary trade secrets, manufacturers have successfully convinced regulators of the need to hide the ingredients (read: toxins) used in their cleaners. These can include solvents, carriers, dispersal agents, preservatives, buffering agents, and so called "inert" ingredients, many of which are known poisons that range from carcinogens and immune toxins to neurotoxins and endocrine system disruptors.
• People use cleaners a little bit at a time over the course of many months or years. Our contact with the chemicals they contain virtually always comes in tiny increments not the large single exposure addressed by product labels. These small exposures can cause an accumulated build-up of toxins that often won't create any negative health effects until a certain level is reached. In the simplest terms, product labels are only worried about what would happen if you dunked your head in a bucket of a particular product–not what happens when you breathe its fumes and get it on your skin once a week for ten years.
• Manufacturers aren't required to test their products for safety in an independent laboratory before marketing them so many products may have hazards that won't be known until users start reporting them.

The best bet when it comes to traditional cleaners is to look for alternatives made from natural ingredients and whose labels offer a full disclosure of all ingredients. If you read a label on any product and find that you've still got an unsolved mystery on your hands, put it carefully back on the shelf, back away slowly, and call Robert Stack. Then make a healthier choice.