GreenSpace: Are cleaners toxic? Labels are clueless

When Earthjustice and other environmental groups announced last week that they were suing several major household cleaner manufacturers, asking that they be required to list ingredients, I was mystified.

Don't they already?

It set me to rummaging under the kitchen sink for my cleaner of choice.

The first ingredient: "soap agents." I noted it wasn't merely "soap." The word "agents" sounded ominous.

Second: "soil suspending agent." These aren't ingredients. They're categories.

Third: perfume. As if I might spritz it on for a party.

Fourth: water. At last, something not likely toxic.

I checked another bottle. This one listed 2 percent sodium hypochlorite and 98 percent "inert ingredients."

The label also read, "Hazards to Humans and Domestic Animals." There were more instructions about first aid than how to use the stuff.

To be sure, it would be foolish to assume cleaners are benign. But this gave me pause.

After all, most people use buckets of cleaners. It's a $5 billion-a-year industry.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, have launched a voluntary "ingredient communication program" to take effect in 2010, though details are scarce.

Studies - and even product labels - suggest some of the chemicals can cause health effects, triggering asthma and allergies. "Not recommended for use by persons with heart conditions or chronic respiratory problems," reads a bottle under my sink.

A 2007 study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine concluded that cleaning sprays could cause 15 percent of adult asthma cases.

Other studies suggest links to infertility.

People are increasingly worried about cleaning chemicals, as sales of "green" cleaners attest. The Chicago research firm Mintel found that such sales quadrupled from 2003 to 2008 to $64.5 million. The firm predicts green cleaners will capture 30 percent of the market by 2013.

But you can sidestep all this. Make your own.

Last summer, Molly Rouse-Terlevich of Bryn Mawr held a party for about 20 women to learn how to do it.

She'd gotten materials from a national environmental health group, Women's Voices for the Earth, which joined last week's suit.

A year ago, the group used spring cleaning season and National Poison Prevention Week to launch an education campaign about the potentially harmful effects of household cleaners.

Since then, nearly 800 people have signed up with the group to host similar parties.

Rouse-Terlevich's two children have allergies, and the more she read about cleaners, the less she liked.

That day in her home, the partygoers learned how to make a homespun version of a cleaning product, using baking soda, castile soap (from vegetable oils) and vegetable glycerine (a preservative).

Now, Rouse-Terlevich makes all her own cleaners.

The two primary ingredients in the arsenal are white distilled vinegar - it's basically acetic acid, which kills germs - and baking soda, which provides a bit of grit.

Need I emphasize that both are products you can eat.

In another Mintel survey, one in three respondents said they used a homemade cleaner at least sometimes.

"This is not just for hippies," Rouse-Terlevich noted. "I'm a pretty conservative person."

Nor is it new. Most of our grandmothers probably used homemade cleaners. People just are gaining a new appreciation.

I never completely trusted that they would work. And, ahem, when you're cleaning quickly, which I usually am, and attacking a buildup because you've waited too long, which I usually have, it seems to call for the big guns.

But Rouse-Terlevich verifies her cleaners work splendidly. Better yet, she says she no longer sneezes after washing the kitchen floor.

A Women's Voices spokeswoman notes that the real goal isn't to have us all making our own cleaning products. It's to pressure manufacturers into using more benign ingredients or, at least, listing all the chemicals so consumers can make informed choices.

Until they do, the next time I'm at the grocery store, I'm headed for the vinegar aisle.

ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER

2 cups white distilled vinegar

2 cups water

20-30 or more drops of essential oil (optional, for fragrance)

Suggested for hard surfaces such as countertops, kitchen floors, windows and mirrors.

Tip: Warming in microwave (in glass container only) until barely hot will boost cleaning power.

CREAMY SOFT SCRUB

2 cups baking soda

½ cup liquid castile soap

4 teaspoons vegetable glycerin (acts as preservative)

5 drops antibacterial essential oil such as lavender, tea tree, rosemary (optional)

Mix together and store in a sealed glass jar; shelf life of 2 years.

Tip: For tough jobs, spray with vinegar first - full strength or diluted - then let sit and follow with scrub.

Source: Women's Voices for the Earth.

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