Household Cleaner Makers Must Disclose Ingredients, Says NY Law
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A consortium of non-governmental organizations, including NYPIRG and Women’s Voices for the Earth, recently dusted off a nearly-forgotten New York law, on the books since 1976, that requires manufacturers of household cleaning products to disclose the ingredients in their products by proper labeling. The law also empowers the Department of Environmental Conservation to ban certain chemicals that have been deemed hazardous to public health or the environment from being used.
The group formally requested that several companies (Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble, et al) comply with the decades-old law. Unsurprisingly, the companies either refused or ignored the request outright.
Meanwhile, stricter standards in Europe have forced these same chemical companies to draw up toxicity data reports and remove certain substances from their products to make them suitable for sale in the EU. As author and investigative reporter “http://www.chelseagreen.com/authors/mark_schapiro”>Mark Schapiro (Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power) says, “The world is no longer waiting for America.”
From River Reporter:
The organizations plan to use the ingredient disclosure reports to educate their members and the general public about the chemicals in cleaning products that may pose a threat. The law also gives authority to the DEC commissioner to restrict the use of any chemicals determined to have an adverse effect on human health or the environment.
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The advocacy groups contend that independent studies show links between chemicals in common household cleaners and respiratory irritation, asthma, allergies, reproductive system damage and birth defects. Some solvents are also believed to be toxic to the nervous system. Other concerns include hormone-disrupting qualities of chemicals found in detergents, disinfectants, stain removers and floor cleaners that can mimic the hormone estrogen.
Complicating the challenge of evaluating the safety of household cleaners is that even once you know what’s in them, you may not know the potential risks associated with those chemicals. Visit www.womenandenvironment.org/campaignsandprograms/SafeCleaning/HazardsReport.pdf for a report by Women’s Voices for the Earth detailing health effects of ingredients commonly used in household cleaners.
Award-winning investigative reporter Mark Schapiro brought attention to this issue in his 2007 book, “Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s At Stake for American Power,” recently released by Chelsea Green in paperback. Schapiro, who is editorial director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, writes that toxic agents that can cause cancer, genetic damage and birth defects are present in everything from our electronic gadgets to our toys to our beauty products and cleaning supplies.
Unlike the European Union, the United States doesn’t require businesses to minimize, or even to list such chemicals. Even as multinational corporations manufacture safer products for Europe, U. S. standards allow them to continue selling products of questionable safety to Americans.
