Interesting: Certain household products may contain toxins that are not on the label

[kijip]

I found this interesting this afternoon and thought I would share. It mostly deals with air fresheners, detergents and scented products including some of those marketed as "organic" or "natural".

Anne Steinemann is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington. She wrote the report that found many scented detergents, dryer sheets and plug–in air fresheners contain toxic chemicals not listed on the label.


http://www.kuow.org/program.php?current=TC

http://water.washington.edu/Research/Projects/spuchemicals.html


For the first link, skip to minute 45 on the MP3 to hear just this part. The first 45 minutes is a dull call in on women in the work force.

[ellies mom]

I'm definitely not surprised. I've noticed in the last few years that a lot of household type supplies are only putting the "class" of chemical instead of the actual chemical on the label. For example, it may say "surfacent" which will tell you what the chemical does but not which surfacent is being used. I've especially noticed this on cleaning supplies that are trying to come off as more natural and green. They may say it is for proprietary reasons but I don't really buy that because they still have to put out a more detailed MSDS, although those are notoriously vague to the point of being dangerous at times. I really think it is so that the average consumor isn't aware that even "natural", "green" and "organic" cleaners aren't as chemicla free as they would like to think. I think the fact that MSDS's are not easily available on their websites is quite telling.

[niccig]

I'm not surprised either. I'll have to ask my SIL, she works for Washington state in water quality testing.