We could look into many household products to find out if the ingredients in a product are harmful. These products are things that we use every day, which gives us a higher exposure. Some of these products could be things that you don’t think twice about, and you consider them to be safe.
Soaps, cookware, cleaning products, detergent, and fabric softener are all products that could contain harmful substances. It is best to limit your exposure to some of these ingredients because some of the ingredients are possibly harmful.
A lot of these products and their ingredients will only come into contact with your skin or through the air that you breathe.
Are household soaps harmful?
Let’s consider household soaps as hand soap and dish soap. We will take a look at both types of soap.
Hand Soap
We are going to start off with hand soap and choose a popular brand to look up on the website ewg.org.
The brand is Softsoap and it is an antibacterial hand soap. This soap has a rating of 5, which is in the middle of best to worst on the harmfulness scale with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst.
The concern with the ingredients is the moderate cancer score, as well as high allergies, immunotoxicity, and use restrictions scores.
There are a good amount of 1 ratings, although there are some ingredients that are 8,7, and 6, which is not good. This makes the overall score for this product go down.
Dish soap
The other soap is dish soap. Let’s look into a popular brand like Dawn.
For the dawn dish soap, we are looking at the Dawn Ultra Dishwashing liquid with original scent.
It has a rating of D with A being the best and F being the worst for harmfulness.
The concerns with the ingredients show that there is not much data for any category except environmental concerns.
Although when I look through the ingredients, most of them are rated with a value of D or C. And, a lot of them may cause cancer or are endocrine disruptors.
How is soap harmful for you?
Soap can be harmful for you because it can be absorbed through the skin. How much of these toxic chemical substances do we absorb through our skin?
It could be a good amount:
A study published in the American Journal of Public Health looked into the skin’s absorption rates of chemicals found in drinking water. It showed that the skin absorbed an average of 64% of total contaminant dosage.1 Other studies found the face to be several times more permeable than broad body surfaces and an absorption rate of 100% for underarms and genitalia.2 And another peer-reviewed study showed 100% absorption for fragrance ingredients.3
https://www.downtoearth.org/articles/health-tips/667/your-skin-it-absorbs
The other way they can harm us is by having some leftover residue on the dishes from dish soap. Even if you rinse them off well, you are probably eating some residue when you put food on your plate and eat it.
Action steps to avoid harmful ingredients in hand and dish soap
To avoid possibly harmful ingredients in dish soap and hand soap, we will have to look for something with a better rating.
Ecos is a brand of household cleaning products that tend to score well with EWG, and they have hand soap and dish soap.
For hand soap, there is an Ecos free and clear hand soap with a score of A.
For dish soap, there is an Ecos free and clear dish soap with a score of 1.
Both of these soaps have the best score you can get without being EWG certified.
Is cookware harmful?
A lot of cookware can contain some very harmful chemicals, especially nonstick cookware.
How is nonstick cookware harmful?
Nonstick cookware can contain perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) like PFOA and PTFE.
PFOA is no longer used because of the possibility of harm to humans.
PTFE is still used in nonstick pans today and can also be considered possibly harmful.
Action steps to avoid harmful chemicals in cookware
There are many different alternatives to nonstick cookware that claim to be PTFE free. But you have to be careful with this because cookware that has a coating could contain other harmful chemicals besides PFOA, PTFE, or PFAS.
Not all cookware with a coating does extensive testing to show that there are no other concerns such as heavy metals.
Companies may be guilty of “greenwashing,” or when they say their products are nontoxic but are misleading you. For instance, when they say their cookware is PFOA and PTFE free, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is safe.
Your best bet is to buy cookware without coating such as stainless steel or cast iron.
You may have to work harder to get the cookware clean. I would recommend a scraper tool for cast iron and stainless steel.
I would also recommend using white vinegar for the stainless steel to get off water stains and stuck on mess.
Here is a solid set of stainless steel cookware from a reputable brand that is also affordable.
You can find some scrapers I was talking about here.
If you want a set of cast iron, then you can find that here.
Are household cleaning products harmful?
Household cleaning products are what you use to clean your bathroom, or floors. Products that you will use for your sink, toilet, tub, or clothing.
Is detergent and fabric softener harmful?
Detergent and fabric softener are used on your clothing, so it just gets on your skin. But remember when we were talking about soap and how it can have 100% absorption rate through certain parts of the body?
It’s gonna be the same for detergent and fabric softener because it will be on your skin.
Let’s take a look at Tide Free and Gentle Liquid detergent.
You would think with free and gentle in the label it would be safer for you, right?
Well EWG has given it an F grade. Let’s take a look as to why.
There’s moderate concern for developmental, reproductive and toxicity. And although there is no data for cancer, it doesn’t mean some of the ingredients are not linked to cancer.
Let’s take a look at some of the ingredients.
Sodium borate has an F rating and there is a D rating and some C ratings for other ingredients.
How about a common fabric softener?
We are going to look at Downy Ultra Fabric Conditioner Mountain Spring.
It has a grade of F, which is the worst grade that a product can get.
Downy does have some products with much better grades, but I feel this is a more common fabric softener.
A lot of bad things with the health concerns for the ingredients. Everything is a moderate concern except for skin allergies and irritation.
Most of the ingredients have a score of D or C.
You are not ingesting these ingredients, but they do get into your body through your skin.
Although with a normal wash cycle, I would say that a good amount gets rinsed off of your clothing.
But be sure that there is still some of these ingredients that will be left on your clothing to be absorbed into your skin.
So it is best to avoid them. Is there a better product available?
Action steps to avoid detergent and fabric softener chemicals
Most fabric softeners that you find in the store are rated C, D, or F. But you can find fabric softener sheets that are rated well.
Seventh Generation Dryer Sheets Fabric Softener Free & Clear Fragrance Free has a B rating and it is a much better rating than the fabric softeners that you will find in stores.
For detergent you can use ECOS Hypoallergenic Laundry Detergent With Enzymes, Lavender, which has a B rating.
Are bathroom cleaners harmful?
A lot of bathroom cleaners are going to have bleach, which can be a harmful ingredient in any product
Let’s take a look at a popular bathroom cleaning product that you can clean sinks, tubs, and counters with; LYSOL Mold & Mildew Remover with Bleach.
This product has an F grade from EWG, which is the worst grade that a product can get.
Some of the health concerns have no data, but there is some health concern for asthma and respiratory.
The ingredient scores give an F to the chlorine bleach in this product. There is also fragrance, which is an endocrine disruptor when it is inhaled.
Can you clean the bathroom without bleach?
Action steps to avoid harmful chemicals in bathroom cleaners
Let’s find a product with a good rating and one that does not have chlorine bleach.
Ecos Bathroom Cleaner, Tea Tree has a rating of A and will be a good substitute.
Is floor cleaner harmful?
Floor cleaners can have a lot of different chemicals and fragrances. But they don’t need to have a ton of harmful ingredients.
Let’s look at a common product such as Swiffer Wet Mopping Cloths, Fresh Scent.
This product has a rating of D which is a very low rating.
There are some health concerns for almost every category.
This product goes on the floor and shouldn’t touch your skin much, but you will be inhaling all of the chemicals.
A lot of the chemicals have D ratings and there are just way too many. You don’t need this many chemicals to clean your floor with.
Is there a simpler product that is safer?
Action steps to avoid chemicals in floor cleaners
Floor cleaners can come with a lot less chemicals than the product we looked at above.
Aunt Fannie’s Floor Cleaner Vinegar Wash Concentrate, Bright Lemon is white vinegar and essential oils.
It is much safer with a rating of A.
Is toilet bowl cleaner harmful?
There can be a lot of harsh chemicals in a toilet bowl cleaner. Let’s take a look at one from ewg.org.
We are going to look at Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach.
It has a rating of F, which is the worst possible rating that you can get.
There definitely are some high health concerns with this product because of the bleach. This concern has to do with skin allergies and irritation the most.
Action steps to avoid harmful ingredients in toilet bowl cleaners
To avoid harmful ingredients in toilet bowl cleaners, you can choose one that has better and safer ingredients.
Try Seventh Generation toilet bowl cleaner. It has a grade of A on EWG.
Conclusion
The website ewg.org is a very useful tool to find safer household products.
As you could see above, you can find an alternative product for almost everything that you use.
Products with a better rating will most likely benefit your health in the long term.
You may even find that some of these alternatives are cheaper than the more common unsafe products.