The Green Shopper
Researchers
Discover Chemical
Carcinogen in
Popular Laundry
Detergent Brands
n
early two-thirds of laundry detergents sold in America today are contaminated
with a cancer-causing chemical called 1,4-dioxane, which is as potent a carcinogen as many chemical pesticides that have been banned for use around
homes, according to a new study carried out by the Organic Consumers Association
and Green Patriot Working Group under the direction and supervision of David Steinman, a leading consumer advocate and former representative of the public interest at
the National Academy of Sciences.
Virtually every recognizable mainstream brand of laundry detergent is contaminated with this cancer-causing chemical, according to the study results.
Laundry Detergents
Results of detergents tested for the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane.
CONVENTIONAL BRANDS
NATURAL BRANDS
✢ Tide Total Care (P&G) – 55 ppm
✢ ECOS (Earth Friendly
✢ Ivory Snow (P&G) – 30 ppm
✢ Tide Free (P&G) – 29 ppm
✢ Purex Ultra (Dial Corp.) – 25 ppm
✢ 2x Ultra Gain (P&G) – 21 ppm
✢ Cheer Bright Clean (P&G) – 20 ppm
✢ ERA (P&G) – 14 ppm
✢ Arm & Hammer (Church & Dwight Co)
– 5 ppm
✢ 2x Ultra Wisk (Sun Products Corp.)
– 3.8 ppm
✢ Woolite Complete (Reckitt
Benckiser) – 1.3 ppm
✢ ALL (Unilever) – 0.6 ppm
✢ Dreft powdered (P&G) – ND
✢ Sun Burst Sunsational Scents (Sun
Products Corp.) – ND
6
the doctors’ prescription for healthy living
Products) – ND
✢ Seventh Generation Free
and Clear – ND
✢ Life Tree – ND
✢ Method Squeaky Green – ND
✢ Clorox Green Works – ND
✢ Planet Ultra – 6 ppm
✢ Mrs. Meyers – 1.5 ppm
KEY
ppm = parts per million
ND = not detected
Levels of the chemical were as high as 55 parts
per million (ppm) in Tide from P&G and 25 ppm
from Purex (Dial).
Only a few brands—most from the natural
products industry—tested free or very low for this
powerful cancer-causing substance. Earth Friendly
Products tested completely free of any traces of this
dangerous chemical.
The health risk from 1,4-dioxane in laundry detergents has become a matter of considerable debate
among public health experts and advocates. The
same study group has also tested many other cosmetic and personal care products, as well as other
types of household cleaning products for the presence of this chemical. High enough amounts were
found throughout the testing that many companies
have come under legal scrutiny.
Clearly, the risk from dioxane’s presence in children’s bubble baths, shampoos and adult products
such as body wash seems obvious to the public—
since the products are applied directly to the skin.
In this case, under pressure by the California attorney general and public interest groups’ legal arms,
many manufacturers began eliminating or markedly
reducing the amount of dioxane in their products.
Dioxane appears in products as a result of
a process called ethoxylation in which relatively
harsh low-sudsing ingredients are combined with
ethylene oxide, a known human carcinogen, in
order to produce softer detergents that produce
more suds. In this process, the ethylene oxide undergoes a slight modification and reappears in the
product disguised as diethylene oxide, also known
as 1,4-dioxane or simply dioxane. For many years,
dioxane contamination was routinely overlooked
as a serious concern by manufacturers and even
our federal watchdog agencies. But recently, as a
result of public pressure stemming from the OCAGreen Patriot Working Group studies, consumers
have begun pressuring manufacturers to produce
cleaner products.
Although many consumers visually associate
dermal exposure through the skin and scalp via
shampoos and bubble baths as an obvious and
unnecessary risk to themselves and their children,
in fact, the risk from laundry detergents, is more
complex—and involves both immediate exposures
and long-term consequences to our precious drinking water resources.
Dioxane is considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be an emerging threat to
water supplies across the country. Towns as diverse
as Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Newport Beach, California, have all found their water supply fouled by
this chemical.
In Orange County, California, dioxane-tainted
sewage water was injected into fresh drinking water
supplies for Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley. Public authorities closed many wells.
The cost for the cleanup was over $10 million, and
Newport Beach alone spent hundreds of thousands
of dollars importing water for its residents.
Yet, even today, according to experts, trace levels appear in the water supply. Other sources such
as greywater systems that contain laundry detergents and personal care products also contribute
to the dioxane contamination.
The reason it is being found at trace levels even
after removal of the major source is that the water
experts there are looking for it. Because it has been
unknown, it hasn’t been tested for. Testing is costly
and requires the most advanced technologies, not
available to water districts routinely. In California,
when dioxane has been tested for, it is found in upward of ten percent of well samples. Nobody knows
how many private wells and groundwater resources
are being polluted by greywater from washing machines that trickles into the major water supplies but
again with more testing it is likely to be found more
frequently.
According to researchers writing in the March
2008 issue of Chemosphere, “As a groundwater
contaminant, 1,4-dioxane is of considerable concern because of its toxicity, refractory nature to degradation, and rapid migration within an aquifer.”
For example, only recently it was reported in
April 2009 that 1,4-dioxane was found in the drinking water of residents of Plaistow, New Hampshire.
The dioxane had migrated from a waste oil site and
fouled more than a dozen residents’ drinking water.
Residents have been advised not to use their tap
water. The chemical has been found at three other
locations in the state. Yet, the state just began test-
ing for the chemical in 2008. And when detected, its
removal is likely to be costly.
Yet, California law prohibits any amount of a carcinogen to be released into drinking water supplies.
Clearly, when people dispose of their laundry water
it is eventually going to end up in water supplies. In
California, reclaimed sewage water is now being
injected into groundwater supplies as a means of
replenishing their stores. This means there is potential for low levels of dioxane to be injected into
groundwater.
Today, dioxane can be easily removed from the
finished product through vacuum stripping or alternative ingredients can be used that do not require
the ethoxy processing. In particular, the remarkable
success and popularity of ECOS from Earth Friendly Products, clearly the major player in the natural
products industry, shows that a laundry detergent
should not only include performance and value, but
leadership in environmental stewardship. These are
clearly safer for families, workers, and our precious
natural resources.
■
Resources
✢ Test results are available at
the following websites:
www.greenpatriot.us
www.organicconsumers.org
✢ Learn more about
green patriotism at
www.greenpatriotradio.com
✢ To find super clean
laundry detergents visit
www.ecos.com.
A Breast Tumor Problem
a
nd what will homemakers say, who are often women of childbearing
age, when they learn dioxane causes benign breast tumors?
The problem is that this is a rip-roaring, full-blown chemical carcinogen, only one tiny molecular step removed from a deadly known human
breast carcinogen, ethylene oxide. In fact, the latest studies show that 1,4-dioxane causes breast adenomas, a benign tumor of
the mammary gland. The latest study to show this
was published in the November 2009 issue of Food
Chemistry and Toxicology.
In a second study, published in September
2009 in Inhalation Toxicology, it was found that
1,4-dioxane was a significant cause of breast
cancer in males.
A new EPA assessment showing significantly
greater cancer risks from the solvent may give
environmentalists greater leverage in their calls for manufacturers to remove
the chemical from their products and for stricter cleanup requirements.
“A new assessment showing [dioxane] is 17 times more potent than
they thought is a big concern because we are finding it in many children’s
products,” a source with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) told Risk
Policy Report.
“1,4 dioxane is springing up at an increasing frequency,” Thomas Mohr of
the Groundwater Resources Association told the EPA last August. “It shows
up because it’s very persistent and mobile.” Mohr noted that as many as 20
states are either considering or have instituted advisory levels for the contaminant. Colorado, which has adopted a legal standard, “recognized about
20 or more sites where this contaminant is threatening drinking water.” ■
the doctors’ prescription for healthy living
7
#1 Household Cleaning
Product Company Today
Protecting our Kids and Our Precious Water
Resources, Celebrating Life Daily
’    when you go about testing consumer products.
The numbers never lie. They tell you the good from the bad. It’s just the way it
is. That’s why when I tell you that I think Earth Friendly Products is arguably
the greatest household cleaning product company today in America I have the
numbers on my side. Recently when major brands of laundry detergents were
tested for the presence of a cancer-causing
chemical, only Earth Friendly Products—
among Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Dial
and others—tested free and also fulfilled all of the highest requirements
for environmental stewardship. Their dishwashing detergent and all other
products test free too, based on independent studies.
This is who I want to invite in my home to be with my kids when
we do our cleaning. We are all talking about the green collar economy and its amazing growth. Well, among
all natural brands, Earth Friendly Products is the only major household cleaning manufacturer today with its
own plants in different geographic areas of the United States. I also learned their Illinois plant now has the
largest solar array in the state, and their California plant, with its solar array, is producing almost
all of its own energy needs.
Only a few companies actually measure up to the highest environmental and
performance standards. It’s why Earth Friendly Products is a valued member of the Green
Patriot™ Green 100.™ To learn more visit www.ecos.com.