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...

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...