Posted on November 17, 2011 by James Bruggers
I 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 its 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.
About James Bruggers
Watchdog Earth is keeping an eye on earth changes and the environment both in Louisville, Ky., and globally. Join award-winning environmental writer James Bruggers in this daily discussion.
As far as he knows, Courier-Journal reporter James Bruggers is about the only journalist covering the environment full time for a Kentucky newspaper, television station or radio station.
A native of Michigan, he lived in the West for more than two decades before coming to the C-J in 2000. He studied journalism, forestry and environmental studies at the University of Montana.
In this blog, Bruggers shares news items and observations from inside the environment beat locally, regionally and globally. He calls your attention to new studies, reports and events. And he goes behind the headlines to answer questions and explain some of his own coverage in the newspaper.
