Procter & Gamble, the maker of Mr. Clean, is under pressure to come clean itself.
Manufacturers of detergents, household cleansers and furniture polish, like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and others, are facing questions from consumers about the chemicals in their products. While many of the chemicals are present only in small amounts, some have been associated with asthma, birth defects and fertility problems in higher doses. And even if the amounts are low, consumer groups say, what is the effect of using these products over a lifetime?
The questions have left the industry in an awkward position. It wants to be seen as environmentally sensitive and consumer-friendly. But at the same time, companies do not want to give competitors and makers of cheap knock-offs all the details of what goes into Pine-Sol, for instance, or Windex.
So they have been working with consumer groups to devise a plan that could satisfy both sides. Come January, the industry has said it will voluntarily start to disclose much of what is in its cleaning products, which now represent a $14 billion-a-year business. Consumers will be able to call an 800 number, look at a Web site or, in some cases, simply check the product label to find the ingredients.
The industry’s plan has been praised by consumer groups as a step in the right direction. “The voluntary plan is not perfect, but it is worlds ahead of where the industry was before,” said Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research at Women’s Voices for the Earth, a nonprofit group that published a study in 2007, “Household Hazards,” that catalogued potential health risks. “We had been talking about this issue for years, and now it is being fast-tracked.”
But whether it goes far enough for some critics is another question.
Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and other major companies have been sued in New York State by consumer groups seeking fuller disclosure. A measure has been introduced in Congress to require ingredient disclosure on all product labels. And in California, which has led the nation in passing “green chemistry” laws, an influential Democrat, State Senator Joe Simitian, said he would press for mandatory disclosure if the voluntary effort came up short.
The government now requires only that ingredients posing an immediate danger be reported on product labels.
Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, argues that consumers have a right to know what is in the products in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. He introduced the mandatory labeling bill.
“The cleaning industry uses five billion pounds of chemicals in the United States, and we have little to no idea of what chemicals are inside these products,” he said. “It’s nonsensical that we have labels on food, but not on the cleansers on kitchen counters.”
Mr. Israel’s measure has been criticized by the Consumer Specialty Products Association, a lobbying group for the industry that has been working with consumer advocacy groups to devise a plan that both can live with. So far, the association has been able to get entities as diverse as the Sierra Club and Procter & Gamble to support the voluntary effort.
“We’ve been working on this issue for years,” said Phil Klein, senior vice president for the industry association. “We’re trying to find a balance to protect confidentiality and product formulations with the need to be more transparent as to what’s in these products.”
There are still points of contention. The voluntary industry plan covers four product categories — air fresheners, automotive care, household cleaners and floor polishes. It would require that all ingredients be listed in descending order of concentration, but amounts of less than 1 percent would not have to be ranked. Preservatives, fragrances and dyes — crucial ingredients that differentiate products but can contain potentially hazardous chemicals — are exempt from disclosure plan.
Big fights are breaking out over small amounts of chemicals, since that is what the industry says is the “secret sauce” that makes products special — putting the lemony smell into Lemon Pledge, for instance.
“Chemicals that make up 30 percent of a product are not the secret,” said Tom Neltner, co-chairman of the Sierra Club’s Toxic Committee. “But chemicals that represent only one-half or a quarter percent — anything below 1 percent is where the information becomes really confidential and proprietary.” That, he continued, is “the nub of negotiations right now. We care because if 99.5 percent of a product is water, and the last part is a fragrance that really hurts someone with asthma, we want to know.”
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