Clorox Discloses Ingredients of Cleaning Products

Photo: Clorox Greenworks

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The safety of household cleansing products if one of the chief concerns of green consumers, since some off-the-shelf cleansers can pollute indoor air, triggering asthma attacks or worse, while making your own cleansers is often very simple.

In New York, groups are pushing an old and forgotten law in an effort to get all companies to disclose the ingredients in their cleaning products. And a number of companies, old and new, are pushing greener cleaning products onto store shelves that, often, come will fully disclosed ingredient lists and simpler recipes than their more complex chemical cousins.

That's why Clorox's disclosure of all ingredients in its cleaning products – from Pine Sol to Tilex – is significant. Clorox already made a splash in the green cleaning space with its Greenworks line, which has become one of the most popular green cleaning lines, if not the most popular brand, in the U.S. The ingredients in Greenworks products have been disclosed, but the makeup of the rest of the Clorox empire had remained obscure.

Clorox's disclosure of all ingredients – including dyes, preservatives and fragrances – is the first of its kind for such a big, mainstream company. (Smaller companies like Seventh Generation have been pioneers in not only full disclosure, but sustainable business practices.) Look for the list at cloroxCSR.com.

Advocates who have been calling for this kind of transparency are pleased.

"Clorox's actions go far beyond what's currently required by law or industry standards for ingredient disclosure, and has paved the way for other companies to follow suit," said Erin Switalski, the executive director of Women's Voices for the Earth, which has highlighted the health risks of fragrances and other chemicals uses in cleaners and other household products. "We would love to see safe cleaning be easier for the consumer, and to do that, consumers need to see the whole picture."

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