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Earth Justice Report on Lawsuit
Earthjustice Wants Companies to List Chemicals in Household Cleaners
The advocacy organization will file a lawsuit to require companies to disclose their ingredients
CLEAN AND SAFE?: A lawsuit pending in New York State would require the makers of cleaning products to reveal their chemical contents.
Examine a bottle of Palmolive dishwasher soap or Tide laundry detergent and try to figure out what chemicals they use to break down grease or produce suds. Stuck? You're not alone. Those chemicals aren't listed.
That concerns some consumers, public health advocates and scientists, who say some of these chemicals may be bad for human health and the environment. "I want a clean home but I'm worried about the toxic health impacts of the cleaners," says Barbara Weir of East Islip, N.Y., a consumer who spoke on a conference call organized by environmental advocates Earthjustice. "I think consumers have a right to know what they're buying."
This week, a group of those concerned citizens and advocates, led by Earth Justice, is filing a lawsuit in New York State to force major U.S. manufacturers—Church & Dwight, Colgate–Palmolive and Proctor & Gamble as well as England-based Reckitt Benckiser Group—to disclose ingredients in their household cleaning products. "Consumers deserve to know whether the products they use to wash their dishes, launder their clothes or clean their homes are harmful to themselves or their environment," says Keri Powell, an attorney at Earthjustice.
The lawsuit revolves around a law passed in 1971—but rarely enforced, says Earthjustice—that gives the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) the power to force manufacturers to disclose the ingredients of their products as well as any health or safety studies. And, should the DEC commissioner feel it is warranted, it also allows the state to ban the use of certain chemicals—a power that was last invoked back in 1985 to ban the solvent nitroacetic acid, or NTA, that was shown to cause cancer in lab animals, according to program associate Saima Anjam of Environmental Advocates of New York.
Several companies—method, Prestige Brands, Seventh Generation, Sunshine Makers and Weiman Products—filed reports with the DEC to comply with the law when contacted by Earthjustice last September. Sunshine Makers, for example, detailed the ingredients of their "Simple Green" product line. Their All-Purpose Cleaner contains 2-butoxyethanol, a solvent which has been shown to reduce fertility in female lab mice and damaged human red blood cells at high levels in vitro.
But the companies named in the suit—whose plaintiffs also include the Sierra Club and the American Lung Association—either refused to submit such a report or did not respond at all. "We can't comment on pending litigation," Kate DiCarlo, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, told ScientificAmerican.com.
The 1971 law made New York a trendsetter as there is no equivalent in other states or at the federal level, according to Ben Dunham, an associate legislative counsel at Earthjustice. "The federal system to regulate toxic chemicals is just in shambles," he says, noting that the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 failed to allow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate asbestos, despite proof that it is harmful. A law introduced in the House in 2008, known as the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act, would attempt to put the burden of proving a given chemical is safe on manufacturers rather than on the EPA to prove it is unsafe; it will likely be reintroduced this year in Congress.
The chemical industry has launched a voluntary effort to address these issues but "a voluntary program doesn't give you that confidence that the information is going to be accurate," says Tom Neltner, co-chair of the Sierra Club's Toxics Committee. Companies sell at least $14 billion worth of such cleaners, according to Euromonitor International.
An additional problem: Even if you know what's in your cleaner, you may not know whether it's safe or not. "One of the problems that none of this is addressing is that there are more than 100,000 chemicals in commerce and maybe 900 evaluations of chemicals for cancer-risk," says chemist Monona Rossol, industrial hygienist for Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, a nonprofit that advises on chemical safety for theaters and artists. "For the majority of chemicals, there just isn't any data."
Some studies have shown that certain glycol ethers can irritate the lungs—exacerbating asthma—and, at higher exposure levels, damage red blood cells or reduce sperm count. Chlorine compounds in cleaning products have also been found to exacerbate asthma, whereas certain surfactants—such as nonylphenol ethoxylates—have been shown to grow breast cancer cells in the lab as well as interfere with the reproductive organs of aquatic species from frogs to fish. But, says physician Ted Schettler, science director for the Science & Environmental Health Network, an organization founded by environmental groups to assess health impacts: "We have no idea how those lab results translate to public health impacts."
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Earth Justice Blog
Mar 12, 2010 01:20AM
Jessica Knoblauch on Mar 12, 2010 01:10AM
Some top stories from the past week at Earthjustice…
Earthjustice lawyers took home a big win after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to review a case that eliminated industrial facilities' ability to ignore pollution limits whenever they start up, shut down or malfunction
Light pollution can mean lights out for many animals such as seabirds and sea turtles, who often make the fatal mistake of confusing artificial lights with natural cues like the horizon. Last week, Earthjustice shined the light on one particularly disturbing case—-a brightly lit luxury Hawaiian resort that is the single greatest cause of deaths and injuries from artificial lights among endangered Newell's shearwater seabirds.
The environmental community mourned the loss of conservative titan Dr. Ed Wayburn, whose efforts inspired thousands of citizen activists, including many Earthjustice staff, board and supporters.
With a $2.8 billion budget shortfall and a generally bleak economic climate, there's a movement growing in Olympia, Wash. to repeal a generous tax break enjoyed by the state's largest polluter, the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia. Earthjustice is pushing for TransAlta to run a cleaner plant that protects public health.
Terry Winckler on Mar 11, 2010 01:02PM
Polls Be Damned - Climate Change is Real
Politicians may flutter in the wind of public opinion polls, but science doesn't care what people think, say climate scientists as they fight growing public skepticism about global warming and its causes.
Today, some 2,000 scientists and economists sent a letter to the Senate, asking for immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This follows yesterday's announcement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Re-arming themselves with scientific facts from a report on climate change that won the 2007 Noble Peace Prize, the IPCC has launched a campaign to counter the "climategate" image sewn by climate change detractors and deniers.
But, even as scientists come out swinging, they have yet another opinion poll to deal with: a Gallup poll, just released, that shows nearly half of the American public are unconcerned about global warming, with many of them doubtful it even exists. This is up from 30 percent not so long ago.
Brian Smith on Mar 10, 2010 12:36PM
Time to End Tax Break for Washington State?s Biggest Polluter
Facing a $2.8 billion budget shortfall, there is a movement afoot in Olympia, Washington to repeal a generous tax break enjoyed by the state's largest polluter, the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia.
The tax break was given to the company in the 1990s provided they kept coal mining jobs in the state. In 2006, TransAlta closed the local mine, laid off 600 workers, and began purchasing coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana.
Despite the tough economic times, TransAlta still pockets $4 million every year.
Terry Winckler on Mar 09, 2010 06:06PM
Environmental Win For the School Books: the Flathead Valley
One of the great environmental victories of our time—preserving the Flathead Valley from development—has quickly become a teachable moment for middle school students in British Columbia.
The naturally dazzling Flathead, with its abundance of wildlife and environmental splendors, will not be sacrificed to get at its plentiful oil, gas and coal deposits, the BC government decided last month. This is how the decision is being taught to students:
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and his government want to focus on building a creative economy.' This includes clean technology, smart forestry practices and tourism—not fossil fuel extraction. Premier Campbell says it's important to balance economic growth with caring for the environment.
Jessica Knoblauch on Mar 09, 2010 12:36PM
The Fastest Die-Off In Human History?
It's hard to imagine that the earth is now experiencing a mass extinction like no other in human history.
Online news organization Mother Nature Network recently published an eye-opening graphic that maps out the top 20 countries with the most endangered species. Ecuador tops both the endangered animal and plant species lists, harboring 2,211 endangered animal species alone, while the U.S. comes in second with more than 1,000 endangered mammals, birds and reptiles.