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Clean - Activists take cleaning product makers to court (if they don’t come clean!)

Do you know what is inside your air freshener or bathroom cleaner? I doubt it. That's because cleaning products, unlike food or personal care products, are not required to disclose a complete list of ingredients. But that could be about to change.
In New York USA, Proctor and Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive are among several manufacturers being sued for refusing to disclose the chemical ingredients in their products and the health risks they pose. "People deserve to know whether the products they use to wash their dishes and clean their homes could be harmful" says New York lawyer, Keri Powell, nonprofit public interest law firm Earthjustice.

The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a coalition of state and national groups: Sierra Club, Women's Voices for the Earth, New York Public Interest Research Group, Environmental Advocates of New York, Riverkeeper, and American Lung Association in New York.

The group is basing their case on an old forgotten 1976 New York state law which requires household and commercial cleaner companies selling their products in New York to file semi-annual reports with the state listing the chemicals contained in their products and describing any company research on these chemicals' health and environmental effects.

Prior to the lawsuit, all manufacturers were contacted and asked to comply. Those that responded include: SC Johnson, Method and Seventh Generation. SCJohnson have launched a website in response at www.WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com. *

However the USA Soaps and Detergents Association (SDA) are angry about the action, saying that they have already unveiled plans for voluntary disclosure program due to start in Jan 2009. The program states: "ingredients present at concentrations greater than one percent will be listed in descending order by predominance. Ingredients present at concentrations of less than one percent will be listed without regard to the order of predominance."

So is there any chance we could see similar moves in Australia? That's a question I'm going to put to our own detergent industry body, PACIA. As anyone who has followed my work will know, I would like nothing more than to see full disclosure made compulsory. Our SASI Clean list of ‘chemicals of concern' found in cleaning products, is frustratingly redundant unless we can determine which products they are actually in.

Australia does not have a law like New York's, but many manufacturers are clearly pushing the legal envelope. According to the NOHSC**, ‘there should be full disclosure of ingredients determined to be hazardous.' Cleaning product labels that contain CAUTION or POISON warnings do so if they contain hazardous substances, yet many do not disclose the ingredients names on the label or MSDS.

Manufacturers hide behind their commercial confidentiality clauses, but that doesn't wash with me. If the food and personal care industry can reveal their ingredients and survive, so can cleaning product makers. What don't they want us to know? Meanwhile, as they say in Europe, No data? No market! Let's vote with our wallets and only buy cleaning products that tell us what is in them.

Stay clean,
Bridget

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Reference Documents
www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-fi-toxics18-2009feb18,0,6836599.story
www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/cleaning-products-disclosure-petition.pdf
http://www.sasiclean.com.au/product_guide.html
www.cleaning101.com/about/11-24-08.cfm
www.womenandenvironment.org/campaignsandprograms/SafeCleaning/HazardsReport.pdf
www.precaution.org/lib/08/ht080626.htm#Healthy_Cleaners_in_a_Changing_World

*Note: The USA SCJohnson operates as a separate company to the Australian company Johnson and Johnson, and we are unclear as to whether the ingredients on this website relate to the same name products sold in Australia.
**National Occupational Health and Safety Council: www.ascc.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/9A5FFEC7-940E-478A-BB34-07C8A1C9D597/0/LabellingCOPNOHSC_2012_1994.pdf

Bridget Gardner is the founding Principle of Fresh Green Clean P/L, Australia's only dedicated Green Clean training and consulting company.Her cleaning column appears on the GreenRazor on a monthly basis. Email your questions and concerns to info@freshgreenclean.com.au, and let Bridget give you the latest advice on eco-friendly clean or visit her website www.freshgreenclean.com.au for more information. Bridget Gardner is the founding Principle of Fresh Green Clean P/L, Australia's only dedicated Green Clean training and consulting company.Her cleaning column appears on the GreenRazor on a fortnightly basis. Email your questions and concerns to info@freshgreenclean.com.au, and let Bridget give you the latest advice on eco-friendly clean or visit her website www.freshgreenclean.com.au for more information.

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Clean - Activists take cleaning products makers to court