James Bruggers - Watchdog Earth

Cleaning products amd right-to-know
Posted on Novembert 17, 2011 by James Bruggers

WI could work full time trying to sort through product claims on consumer goods and what's environmentally safe or not. I don't have time for that.

Today, however, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation in Berea is passing along a report from Women's Voices for the Earth that involved testing on 20 cleaning products, concluding:

New independent lab testing on 20 top household cleaning products reveals that top-selling cleaning products and detergents, including Tide Free & Gentle, Pine-Sol and Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, contain toxic chemicals not revealed to the consumer.

The report, Dirty Secrets: What's Hiding in Your Cleaning Products, comes on the same day as Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) has introduced the Cleaning Product Right-to-Know Act, national legislation to change the lax regulations around the disclosure of cleaning product chemical ingredients, KEF says.

Currently, cleaning products are not required to list ingredients on the label, so unlike personal care products and food, there is no way for consumers to know the full list of ingredients in cleaners, the group says.

Find the report here and a fact sheet here. I can't vouch for it's accuracy but if you are interested or concerned about these things, you might want to check the report out and seek more information about the issue.