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...

Ammonia has been a staple in cleaning products for decades, valued for its streak-free finish and grease-cutting ability. It is also a strong respiratory irritant that produces toxic chloramine gas when mixed with bleach, a...

Formaldehyde is classified as a known human carcinogen by three separate agencies: the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the National Toxicology Program (NTP), and the EPA. You will rarely see "formaldehyde" on a...

You will not find the word "phthalate" on most product labels. That is part of the problem. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors used as fragrance solvents and plasticizers, and they are commonly concealed inside the single...

There is one word on more ingredient labels than almost any other, and it tells you almost nothing: fragrance. Under current US regulations, a single "fragrance" listing can represent dozens or hundreds of undisclosed chemical...

Pick up the disinfectant spray under your sink and check the active ingredient. If it lists Benzalkonium Chloride, Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride, or any compound ending in "ammonium chloride," you are looking at a...

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,...