Household Cleaning Products: What you should look out for

Many common household cleaning products that we easily access from the supermarkets contain chemicals that can harm your body. It is essential to start being observant and knowledgeable with the seemingly unimportant ingredient list at the back of our products. By doing so, you are building a safe and non-toxic environment for you and your family.

What can these chemicals do?

What then can we do to ensure safety for us and our loved ones? 

Start by reading the labels of the household cleaning products you use regularly. Manufacturers are not required to list ingredients on household products. However, signal words and hazard symbols can tell us how toxic a product is. Look out for signal words such as: DANGER and WARNING.

What products should we avoid?

• 2-butoxyethanol (or ethylene glycol monobutyl ether) and other glycol ethers
• Alkylphenol ethoxylates (some common ones are: nonylphenol and octylphenol ethoxylates, or octoxynols)
• Bisphenol A
• d-Limonene
• Dyes (may be listed as FD&C or D&C)
• Ethanolamines (common ones to look out for are: monoethanolamine [MEA], diethanolamine [DEA], and triethanolamine [TEA])
• Fragrances
• Parabens
• Phthlates
• Pine or citrus oil
• Quaternary ammonium compounds - anything that ends with chloride
• Triclocarban
• Triclosan
• Bleach or sodium hypochlorite

With knowing how such chemicals can affect our health and the active ingredients causing these negatively effects our health. Let’s take these labels seriously and start paying attention to the actives we are using in our homes.

Posted by Winn Chin

Winn Chin is a life and beauty enthusiast who majors in Chemistry, and love synthesizing information to share content about products in their daily lives.