Sodium hypochlorite is effective. That has never been the question. Household bleach disinfects surfaces at 3-8% concentrations. It is also the number one cause of cleaning-related poison control calls in the United States. The American...

Three abbreviations on your ingredient list, MEA, DEA, or TEA, represent a class of chemicals that can react with other ingredients to form nitrosamines, which are known carcinogens. Ethanolamines are workhorses in conventional cleaning products....

In 2016, the FDA banned triclosan from consumer antiseptic wash products after years of research on thyroid disruption and antibiotic resistance. But triclosan was one compound in a larger class. Phenols remain in disinfectants, mouthwash,...

Three products sit next to each other on a store shelf. One says "fragrance free." The next says "unscented." The third says "no added fragrance." They look like they are promising the same thing. They...

You reach for the bleach under the sink, and the routine is familiar: open a window, put on gloves, try not to splash it on your clothes. It works, but the fumes fill the room,...

The first time Carol Krska saw her products on a grocery store shelf, they were sitting between brands with multimillion-dollar marketing budgets and national distribution. Hers had a hand-designed label, a formula she had developed...

Imagine Carol Krska standing in the cleaning aisle of a grocery store. She picks up a conventional all-purpose cleaner, the kind with a bright label and a name that implies freshness. She does not look...

There was a moment, standing at a farmers market table in Kansas, when Carol Krska watched a customer pick up a bottle, read the label that said "Emerald Prairie Home," smile politely, and set it...

The blue dish soap. The green all-purpose cleaner. The pink hand wash. These colors exist because decades of marketing taught consumers to associate color with cleaning power. Synthetic dyes are petroleum-derived compounds that add zero...