NEW YORK — It’s the mystery under the kitchen sink.
Exactly what’s in floor cleaner? What’s stain remover made of? And what effects, if any, might they have on human health or the environment?
Environmental advocates want to know, and they asked a court Thursday to use a 1971 New York state law to force such manufacturers as Procter &Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive to reveal just what makes up such household staples as Ajax, Ivory soap and Tide.
The cleanser industry — which recently ramped up voluntary efforts to unveil product ingredients — says that the legal case is unwarranted, and that fears about health risks are misinformed.
But groups including the American Lung Association and the Sierra Club want the public to know more.
Members “want access to the information so they can determine the kind of chemicals that they are introducing into their homes and whether there are any risks associated with them,” Keri Powell, an attorney for the environmental firm Earthjustice, told a judge at a hearing Thursday.
A victory in the New York case would require companies to report their contents only to the state. But the advocates hope it will fuel nationwide reform of regulations on chemicals in cleaners and other products.
The case comes amid growing concerns about potential toxins lurking in consumer goods, from the heavy metal cadmium in jewelry to the chemical bisphenol A in baby bottles.
Some studies have linked cleaning product components to asthma, antibiotic resistance, hormone changes and other health problems. The industry’s major trade group, the Soap and Detergent Association, assails the research as flawed, says the products are safe if used correctly and notes that cleaning can itself help stop the spread of disease.
Federal environmental laws don’t require most household cleaning products to list their ingredients, though there are congressional proposals to change that. The Consumer Product Safety Commission requires hazard warning labels on some cleansers, and the National Institutes of Health offer some health and safety information for hundreds of cleaning products, drawn from data gathered for industrial use.
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