Petition for safer cleaners

http://www.coopamerica.org/pdf/CAQ74.pdf

From Co-op America Quarterly

Every expert we talked to for this issue recommended avoiding conventional,
chemical-based household and industrial cleaners, and with good cause. Not
only have the ingredients in most cleaning products never been tested for
safety, but manufacturers aren’t even required to tell us what those ingredients
are. You’ll see no warning labels telling you that common ingredients in these
products—like ammonium quaternary compounds, glycol ethers, and
phthalates—are possibly linked to increased asthma rates, reproductive
toxicity, and hormone disruption, respectively.

Co-op America has joined with Women’s Voices for the Earth to demand
that Procter & Gamble, Clorox Co., Reckitt-Benckiser (makers of Lysol,
Easy-Off, Resolve, and Mop & Glo brands), S.C. Johnson & Son, and Sunshine
Makers Inc. (makers of Simple Green) make their cleaners safer for human
health and the environment. Safe cleaning products are of special concern
for women, who still do 70 percent of the household cleaning; janitors, who
are routinely exposed to the chemicals in cleaning products throughout their
workday; and children, whose tiny bodies are most vulnerable to the chemicals
found where they live and play.

We’re calling on these five companies to replace the suspected toxins in
their cleaners with better, safer, greener alternatives. We’re also asking the
companies to fully disclose the ingredients in their products—even though
federal law doesn’t require them to do so—so consumers can be better
informed about our choices.

Sign the online petition to
Procter & Gamble,
Clorox, Reckitt-Benckiser,
S.C. Johnson, and Sunshine
Makers, Inc. at www.womenand
environment.org.
For more information about
the campaign, contact Women’s
Voices for the Earth, 406/543-
3747, www.womenand
environment.org.
Learn more about the companies
that make conventional
cleaners at Co-op America’s
ResponsibleShopper.org.