Product Review Friday: Formula 409 Antibacterial All-Purpose Cleaner

Up until today, the products I’ve reviewed on Fridays have been on the green side: Burt’s Bees, Trader Joe’s, Method. Today I decided to review something that can be found in thousands of homes: Formula 409. I found this product in the cabinet of my new apartment, and, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’ve been using it. However, since I use it to wipe down my counter tops, and since I prepare food on those same counter tops, I thought it would be a good idea to find out exactly what I’m spraying around the house.

Formula 409 comes in a plastic #2 HDPE spray bottle, one that is easily recycled. The nozzle is a different plastic, but you can hang onto that and buy a Formula 409 refill for the spray bottle if you wish.

My first impression upon looking at the bottle is that this is a serious product, one that I don’t want to mess with. A big “Caution” statement is right on the front, referring me to the back for more information. The front also warns me to keep the product out of reach of children. The back continues with the warnings:

1. It is a violation of Federal law to use the product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.
2. For surfaces that may come in contact with food, a potable water rinse is required.
3. Hazards to Humans and Domestic Animals.
4. Causes moderate eye irritation.
5. Avoid contact with eyes, skin, or clothing.

In addition, Clorox (the makers of Formula 409) recommends that you not use this product on soft vinyl, varnishes, or aluminum, and that you test a small area before using it on a painted surface. If you get Formula 409 in your eyes, the bottle directs you to rinse them for 15 – 20 minutes (if you have contacts, take them out after the first 5 minutes of rinsing), and the same if you get it on your skin. If you get it on your clothes, it says to take the clothes off, though it gives no information about what to do with them. There’s no info about what to do if you or your kid or your dog swallows the stuff.

About using the product, here’s a straw poll: if you use an all-purpose cleaner around the house, how do you use it? I asked around and everyone I asked uses this kind of product the same way I do: spray some on the counter, and wipe it off with a damp cloth or sponge. People! If you are using Formula 409 like this, you are breaking Federal law!!! Here’s how you are supposed to use it:

General cleaning: Spray it onto “soils” and wipe clean with a dry paper towel or lint-free cloth. Repeat if you are cleaning up something heavily soiled.

To disinfect: Spray until thoroughly wet. Let stand for 10 minutes, then wipe. Pre-clean if heavily soiled.

To sanitize non-food contact surfaces and deodorize: Same instructions as for disinfecting, but wait for 30 minutes before wiping.

And again, if you do use it to clean something that comes into contact with food, rinse the surface with water. I’m not sure if a damp sponge counts as rinsing, but I’m not about to flood my counter top with a bucket full of water.

Other than all the fear-inducing warnings, I don’t have any complaints about the way Formula 409 works. It’s easy to clean up oil splatters on my stove, and I haven’t yet become sick from salmonella or some other bacterial funk in my kitchen (though I never did using a natural all-purpose cleaner, either). The smell is both clinical and perfume-y. I can’t say I really like the smell, but it dissipates quickly and it doesn’t bother me a lot either, though I don’t have asthma nor do I normally suffer from allergies. My husband, however, suffers from both allergies and asthma, so I do try to avoid products that can cause respiratory irritation.

So the big question becomes, what’s in this stuff, and is there anything to worry about? Finding out what is in Formula 409 took some work. According to the label, Formula 409 contains Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride and “other ingredients.” The Formula 409 web site says that the Antibacterial All-Purpose Cleaner contains nonionic and cationic surfactants, solvents, and dye. It does not contain phosphorus according to the label, nor does it contain ammonia or bleach according to the web site. I often look up products’ Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to see if there is anything else I should know; you can sometimes find other ingredients not listed on labels there. Clorox’s web site has the MSDS for this product in PDF format, and here I found out that the product also contains n-Propoxypropanol and Monoethanolamine. I also frequently refer to the Household Products Database put together by the NIH and the National Library of Medicine. This database had an MSDS for Formula 409 Antibacterial Lemon All-Purpose Cleaner, and showed 2-Butoxyethynol as an ingredient. The MSDSs also explain what to do if you ingest this product: drink a glass of water and call a doctor. Also, if you have trouble breathing, get some fresh air.

Here’s what I found out about the ingredients:

Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride -This chemical is used for disinfectants, biocides, and pesticides. It cause skin, eye, and respiratory irritation.

Dye - I don’t know what specific dye Formula 409 contains, so for all I know it is a perfectly safe dye. However, some dyes are known to cause allergies, irritations, and possibly cancer.

Nonionic and cationic surfactants – Surfactants are widely used in cleaners and detergents, and are used to lower water tension thus allowing cleaning chemicals to do their job more easily. There are many kinds of surfactants; some are safe and some are not. One nonionic surfactant that is of particular concern is alcohol ethoxylate, which releases 1,4 dioxane, a probably carcinogen.

Solvents - Again, this is another vague ingredient, so I can’t comment on the safety or environmental friendliness Formula 409’s solvents.

n-Propoxypropanol – This solvent causes eye and skin irritations, and is found to be a central nervous system depressant in animal studies.

Monoethanolamine - MEA is used in detergents, personal care products, textile finishing and weed treating. It can cause burns to eyes and skin, and also cause respiratory irritation. Overexposure can cause damage to the liver and kidneys.

2-Butoxyethynol – This is also known as ethylene glycol butyl ether or EGBE. It is on California’s list of toxic air contaminants, and is linked with reproductive problems, such as testicular damage, reduced fertility, death of embryos, and birth defects in animal studies. It also causes nose and eye irritation and headaches.

Bottom line: I stand by my initial impression that this is a serious product that I don’t want to mess with. Indoor air pollution is a problem, and this is just one more product that decreases air quality around the home. I’ve always been happy using green all-purpose cleaners, and have never missed the extra “ooomph” of a product like Formula 409 — in most situations, I really don’t need a powerful cleaner like this and it would not be worth it to me to buy it for use on a regular basis.

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Thinking about a green consumer revolution

Earth Day is here, along with its attendant activities, tips for being green, and stories in the mainstream press and the blogosphere. I’ve also noticed a lot of green marketing this year, with stores offering discounts on natural and/or earth-friendly products, corporate campaigns around green initiatives, and so on. Hallmark even offers online Earth Day cards (the little guy above left is from their “Have you hugged the Earth today?” card), while on Facebook you can send your friends virtual CFLs while “free” supplies last.

My Earth Day message is simple: Think. The next time you go to make a purchase — whatever it is — think about it. Think about where it came from. Think about the materials that went into it. The hands that made it. The things you are bringing to your home, your body. Think about what will happen to the item when you are finished with it, thinking again what it is made of. Think what it will do to the environment in a landfill, in the air, in the water supply. If you don’t know, find out. Think about it being refurbished or reused. Think: is this really a good product for me, for my family, for my planet.

If the product is good, go ahead and buy it with a clear conscience. Tell your friends and family about it, maybe let them try it. If it’s not good for the planet, tell your friends and family about that, too. Maybe they will remember your words the next time they are at the store, and make a better choice as a result.

Can we shop our way out of environmental catastrophe? Well, yes and no. Obviously it will take a lot more than good purchasing decisions to clean up our planet, but thinking — really thinking — about what you buy is a good starting point, especially for those who are green about being green (so to speak). Buying a greener product does make a difference. Many people buying greener products makes a bigger difference. Not only does it lower the impact on the planet, it also sends a loud and clear message to the companies that stock our shelves: We care about the planet. We care about buying products that don’t hurt it. We don’t want products that harm us, our families, and our planet.

This is what Greener One is all about, and why our team is so excited about our project: thoughts lead to action, and action leads to change. So, if you haven’t visited the main Greener One site, we invite you to come find out what makes a product green, use our toolkit to track down green facts about products, and share your green product knowledge with the Greener One community.

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Spreading the word about the Take Back the Filter campaign

People who are concerned about the environment are shunning bottled water and turning to the cheaper, friendlier — and often better regulated — alternative of tap water. Many people everywhere also choose to filter their tap water, either with a faucet mount or in a container such a Brita pitcher.

Brita is the leading pour-through filter in both the United States and Canada, is the top selling faucet mount filter in Canada, and is the second best selling faucet mount filter in the U.S. As you can imagine, replacing filters every two months leads to an incredible amount of filters being discarded in North America.

Brita, which was founded in Germany in 1966, has been dismantling and reusing cartridges in Europe since 1992. Brita has a take-back service in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, France, and Switzerland. One in four filters is currently recycled in Germany alone.

The same is not true in North America, where the North American division of Brita has been owned by the Clorox Corporation since 2000. Clorox uses its Filter for Good campaign to sell filters as a way to cut down on bottled water waste, but does not have a take-back program for its filters. Clorox’s practice of not recycling its filters rather defeats the purpose of its own Filter for Good campaign! Enter the Take Back the Filter campaign, where you can:

• Sign a petition urging Clorox to start such a program in North America;
• Write a letter to Clorox execs;
• Get an address to send your used filters (the campaign is collecting them to deliver to Clorox); and, of course,
• Learn how you can spread the word about the campaign

Please take a minute to pop over to Take Back the Filter and show your support!

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Product Review Friday: Trader Joe’s Next to Godliness Liquid Dish Soap

In my quest for replacing products in my house with eco-friendlier options, I recently bought a bottle of Trader Joe’s Next to Godliness Liquid Dish Soap in Mandarin Orange. This replaces a bottle of Joy dish soap that had been left in my cupboard by the previous tenant in the apartment that I am renting.

Now, I don’t mind using extra elbow grease to reduce my impact on the planet, but I just don’t find this product to be all that effective, and it is important that eco-friendly products work in order to be viable alternatives for most people. Case in point: I use a lot of olive oil in my cooking and to make my own salad dressings. The Next to Godliness dish soap does very little to clean oil off my plates and bowls, so I have to use extra soap and also use a clean towel to wipe off leftover oily residue. I have used other “green” brands in the past (Caldera, and, I think, Mrs. Meyers), and I don’t remember having this problem with them (though I can’t promise that, not having used them in over a year). I also find myself washing things like coffee cups and wineglasses twice, because one wash doesn’t get everything out. The bottle claims that the soap is concentrated, and that a little goes a long way. This was not the case in my experience; I often would use twice the amount that I would with the Joy that was left in the cupboard. On the positive side, the scent is very mild (derived from mandarin oil), and my hands are not overly dried out after doing dishes.

Ecologically speaking, Next to Godliness dish soap does have some strong advantages. First, it natural and naturally-derived ingredients, other than trace amounts of color. It is also biodegradable, cruelty-free, and comes in a recyclable bottle made from #1 plastic.

Bottom line: While this product strikes the right notes on an environmental front, it’s not a great product for someone like me who washes all her dishes by hand. (I think it would be fine for someone who normally uses a dishwasher and hand washes only on occasion.) I also want to say that I like TJ’s products generally, such as their laundry detergent and honey oatmeal soap. The dish soap is just a miss for me. If anyone knows of a great green dish soap — especially at a comparable price — please let me know in the Comments. At this rate of double-washing my dishes, I’ll need a new bottle soon!

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How can bottled water be green?

When I was a senior in high school, I had the bright idea to buy an underwater aquifer and just sit on it, waiting for the world’s freshwater supplies to dwindle and then cash in on my goldmine. I never did buy that aquifer, but I have watched the bottled water industry change over the past 17 years with interest since my first business idea.

Where I went to university in northwest Ohio, the tap water quality was so poor that pregnant women, young children, and the elderly were advised not to drink it. Thinking that if the water wasn’t good for them, it probably wasn’t the best for me, either, I bought a couple of gallons of water at the local grocery store. Each week, I would bring them back and refill them from a water purifier. The store sold bottled water, but it was nothing like today. There was little variety, the bottles were sold by the gallon, and the packaging was anything but sexy. I knew of only two “premium” waters — though I didn’t know that term back then. One was Perrier, which I thought a glamorous alternative to alcohol, and the other was Evian, which seemed sophisticated if frivolous with its ads of models in tubs filled with Evian, and not nearly as much fun as water with bubbles in it.

By the time I graduated from university and started working, the bottled water health craze had started. It seemed like everyone in the office was carrying their water bottles around, drinking ostentatiously throughout meetings, and making a great display of carrying them to a lunchtime aerobics class. Families I knew started to buy cases of bottled water in individual sized bottles from Sam’s Club and Costco.

Shortly thereafter, the marketing for bottled water really stepped up. The packaging grew sexier, and bottled water from all over the world poured onto American shelves: water from Fiji, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia. These bottles, mini works of art, also started showing up in television shows and in the movies, and restaurants meanwhile offered a variety of choices of bottled water on their menus. Bars also began to differentiate themselves by claiming their ice cubes were made from such-and-such brand of water, ensuring that cocktails wouldn’t have any tap water taste taint.

And sales of water, did they soar. Investing Happily claims that Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water last year. The Beverage Marketing Corporation reported 2007 sales at $11 billion (.doc). The same report shows consumption of bottled water jumping from 4.7 billion gallons in 2000 to 8.8 in 2007.

It goes without saying that all this consumption has a big impact on the environment (and one that could be decreased by drinking tap water, notwithstanding the quality of it in my old school town). Food and Water Watch, a non-profit consumer group that works to ensure the safety of food and water, offers up these facts as part of their Take Back the Tap campaign:

• Plastic bottle production in the United States annually requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil.
• Worldwide bottling of water uses about 2.7 million tons of plastic each year.
• About 86 percent of empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled. That amounts to about two million tons of PET plastic bottles piling up in U.S. landfills each year.
• Many plastic bottles of all types and sizes will be incinerated, which releases toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash laden with heavy metals.

So, I have to admit that I read the news about FIJI Water’s plans to reduce its environmental impact with some cynicism last week. Basically, they worked with the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration to determine their carbon footprint and identify areas where they can reduce emissions. They’ve pledged specific goals, are purchasing carbon offsets to become carbon negative, and are involved with a rainforest reforestation project in Fiji. These are positive steps, all, but it also seems to me that the bottled water industry in general is now faced with some serious defensive marketing as bottled water — once the darling of the beverage industry — is now under attack because of its environmental impact.

This story also made me wonder what other bottled water companies are doing, as FIJI is a relatively small player compared to the Top 10 bottled water brands in the U.S. It turns out that all of the Top 10 have some environmental information on their web sites. All claim to be fully recyclable. In addition, here are some other claims:

Aquafina (Owned by Pepsico)

• Partners with Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition. The program Return the Warmth turned recycled Aquafina bottles into 100,000 fleece jackets for children in need.
• 1/2 liter bottle now uses 35% less plastic than it did in 2000.
• Uses a water recovery system in its production.
• Has production facilities in 40 locations in the U.S., reducing shipping distances.
• Makes “more and more” bottles in the plants themselves, not shipping empty bottles to plants for filling.

Dasani (Owned by Coca-Cola Corporation)

• Picked light blue as the color for its bottles because recyclers prefer it.
• States two different claims for reduction of plastic body weight this year (one page says they are reducing by 20% and another says 30%)
• Parent site Coca-Cola has large section on corporate responsibility, but it does not talk about Dasani specifically.

Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka, and Zephyrhills (All owned by Nestle):

• Each has identical info about environmental claims.
• Has the largest home and office delivery service in the U.S. (Side note: at a previous company, we had water service through Arrowhead. They brought us at least a case of free individual sized water bottles with every order, and these bottles went fast around the office, with people hoarding the bottles in their drawers!)
• Has partnered with the Nature Conservancy for a decade, conserving 426,000 acres of natural resources.
• Uses Project WET (Water Education Teachers) to teach kids about water conservation.
• Its Eco-Shape bottle uses about 30% less plastic than the average half liter bottle.
• Five of its plants are LEED certified, and all future plants will be built to LEED specifications.
• Creates almost all their bottles on site.

Sparkletts (Owned by DS Waters of America)

• A home and office water delivery service, primarily.
• 3 and 5 gallon bottles are cleaned and reused 40 to 50 times before being recycled into other plastic products.

Crystal Geyser (Owned by Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water/ CG Roxane, LLC):

• Sponsors World Environment Day in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Partners with American Forests and has planted 50,000 trees per year since 2001.
• Has decreased plastic packaging by 25% since 1990, uses recycled materials in its trays and boxes, and uses 12.5 grams of PET per half liter bottle.
• Has implemented measures to improve the efficiency of water usage during the bottling process, sort materials such as cardboard, shrink film, PET, and wood from pallets, and is updating facilities to energy efficient machinery and lighting. Uses propane or batteries for forklifts, not diesel.
• Produces its bottles on site as 6 locations in the U.S.

Evian (Owned by Danone):

• Its Water Protection Institute works to educate others about wetlands conservation and sustainable management of water resources. WPA currently has projects in Argentia, Thailand, and Nepal.
• Evian worked with the French government in 1926 to establish a protection area around the Evian water source and to limit human activity in this area. Works on local initiatives to ensure quality and sustainability in the area and in the Evian water source and watershed.
• Has worked to reduce weight of bottles, but does not give specifics.
• Pioneered use of PET in bottles.
• Starting in 2008, 1 liter and 750 ml bottles will include 25% post-consumer recycled content.
• Recycles 98% of its plastic waste.
• Is ISO14001 certified, meeting requirements of an environmental management system.
• Replaced industrial water in its conveyor belts with a recyclable solution.
• Has instituted a program that has saved 920 million gallons of water in the past five years.
• Relies on rail and barge transport in Europe to reduce CO2 emissions.

Given that this is the Greener One blog, what’s the greener bottler? This is hard to say, given that the criteria differed from site to site, and none had hard data on emissions. Using a home or office delivery service is greener than buying the same amount of bottled water, but Evian, in my opinion, provided the most specifics about their environmental improvements, though the distance to market is a negative for the American market. Like the campaign says, though, the greenest is really to take back your tap.

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How green is your bike ride?

I’m a walker and public trans person, not a biker, so I’ve never given much thought to how green biking is. I just assumed that it is! Turns out, like everything else, there are even ways to be more green while biking. Just a few things to consider:

• Where do you ride your bike?
• What do you wear while riding?
• How do you fix a flat tire?
• Do you clean your bike chain, and if so, how?

The Sierra Club has a series of “How green is my __________?” quizzes on their web site. While the biking quiz is more on the fun side, there are some great bits of information in the PC, TV screen, and laundry quizzes. And, if you are not a geek who loves to take quizzes (like me), you can jump straight to the answers. Have fun testing your green knowledge!

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Product Review Friday: Burt’s Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Shampoo

Light, crisp, citrus scents make me happy, so when I saw Burt’s Bees grapefruit shampoo I had to give it a try, and overall, I was not disappointed. Truth be told, its aroma is pretty strong due to the natural oils it contains — grapefruit, orange, lemon, tangerine, lime, ginger, and petigrain — so if you are sensitive to smells, this might not be the best shampoo for you.

Otherwise, this shampoo is a natural winner, no pun intended. First, it is 98.8 % natural, and gets a low risk in the Cosmetic Safety Database. (Burt’s Bees is a signer of the Compact of Safe Cosmetics, which obligates signers to “ormulate products that do not use ingredients that are known or suspected to cause certain health harms within three years of signing.”) The shampoo is free of sodium laureth sulfate, paraben, and phthalate, all of which are linked to health problems.

I’m also pleased with the packaging. The bottle is #2, so it is easily recycled, and it is made from 80 % post-consumer recycled material.

As to its effectiveness, every person is different and has their own preferences and reactions to shampoos. I am fairly picky about shampoo, but this one meets my main criteria: it smells nice, it is natural, and it gently cleans my hair. I admit that I don’t like the associated conditioner that much, as my hair feels coated and weighed down after using it, so I usually follow up with my regular conditioner instead of Burt’s Bees.

I do have one nit-pick, and that is about the company, not the product. While the bottle is wildly informative about all the great things that are in it, and all the bad things that aren’t, there is no information about its biodegradability. So, I used the “Contact Us” form on the Burt’s Bees web site to as whether the product is readily biodegradable, and I heard zilch back, not even a form “thank you for your inquiry” email. I’d love to know.

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Green office roundup

There’s been a lot of buzz about green office supplies in environmental news this week, and it is easy to see why. Consider these statistics from a 2002 Green Seal report (PDF):

• 1.6 million single-use pens are discarded each year in the United States.
• 24 trees are cut down to make a ton of (virgin) printing and office paper.
• A ton of paper made from 100 percent recycled paper, as compared to virgin paper, saves the equivalent of 4,100 kilowatt-hours of energy, 7,000 gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
• By sending their printer and copying cartridges for remanufacturing, U.S. businesses could save $1.5 billion and at least 100,000 barrels of oil annually.

The report went on to say “two-thirds of U.S. businesses have policies on recycling, but only 40% have policies regarding the purchase of recycled materials.” Green Seal did not have more up-to-date information about purchasing on their web site, I would hope that the percent of companies with green purchasing policies has gone up. More and more companies are looking at ways to green up, not just to show their green cred to a more caring world, but also because green purchases can have a strong impact on the bottom line.

For example, the American Bar Association has asked law firms around the country to step it up with their “Law Firm Climate Challenge,” which recognizes firms for making commitments in a variety of areas that are practical for any business. In their Law Office Guide to Energy Efficiency, the following savings are calculated from a 30% reduction in energy use (which can be achieved through best practices and switching to more energy efficient products):

Office Space	20,000 square feet
Lease Term	5 years
Energy Savings	30%
Reduces Costs	$0.60/ sq. ft. annually
Savings	$12,000
Lease-Term Savings	$60,000
Energy Consumption Avoided	600,000 kWh
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Avoided	379 metric tons of CO2

Office Depot announced Office Depot Green this week, identifying products with recycled content or Green Seal approval. Consumers and purchasing managers will still need to do some digging if they want to find the greener products, however, as any product meeting minimum criteria is included in the green line. On a personal note, I was disappointed to see the lack of fanfare for the green line on Office Depot’s web site. The only link to buying green was a tiny text link on the bottom right.

Speaking of digging deeper, the Dogwood Alliance and Forest Ethics released their report card this week, grading Corporate Express, Office Depot, FedEx Kinkos, Office Max, and Staples on their paper practices in the categories of Chain of Custody, Endangered Forests, Forest Conservation, Sustainable Management – FSC Certification, and Post-Consumer Recycled Content. Details can be found in the report, but here’s how the grades stacked up:

Corporate Express: C+
Office Depot: B-
FedEx Kinkos: B+
Office Max: D+
Staples: B+

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Product Review Friday: Method Hand Wash

I started using Method products a few years ago. Specifically, I liked using the all purpose spray in grapefruit. It didn’t contain a lot of crazy chemical ingredients, and it had a light, pleasant aroma. I was also very taken by the Method story: the company’s commitment to being a different kind of company, to designing low-impact products with cradle-to-grave in mind, to making “green” cleaning products sexy and fashionable.

I was happy, therefore, when I moved into a new apartment and found that the previous occupant had left half a bottle of Method hand wash next to the kitchen sink. From a usage perspective, I have to admit that I am not nearly as enamored with the hand wash as I am with the all purpose spray. My three main quibbles are:

1. The smell. The hand wash I have is cucumber scented. If anything is innocuous smelling, it is a cucumber. Method cucumber hand wash, however, is so strongly scented that the inside of my nose burns and the back of my throat swells up every time I use it. And to top it off, I really don’t think it smells like cucumbers. Cucumbers smell light and fresh, while this soap just smells perfume-y. The bottle lists the catch-all “Fragrance” as an ingredient, so I don’t know what they are using for scent, but I would be willing to bet that this “fragrance” was never derived from the delightful cucumber. The smell also lingers on my hands well after I’ve rinsed and dried them. By the way, here’s what the Environmental Working Group has to say about “fragrance:”

2. The color. The cucumber hand wash looks like something out of Dexter’s Lab: it is bright green in the manner of Gatorade, or nuclear waste. (Not that I know what color nuclear waste is.) The bottle lists Yellow 10 and Green 5 as ingredients. From what I’ve read, these ingredients aren’t terribly harmful other than causing irritation to the skin and eyes. It just seems unnecessary to me to add color, if you are a company that markets itself on naturally derived ingredients. On the other hand, it is a dramatic color to behold in the clear bottle, so perhaps it is good for sales. People like funky-looking products.
3. How my hands feel after using it. My skin feels dry and tight after washing my hands with this hand wash, so more often than not I follow up with some hand cream.

In addition, the Environmental Working Group gives Method hand wash a moderate hazard rating due to its ingredients, fragrance being the most questionable. The full report can be seen here. (Note that the EWG does not have info on cucumber, so I’m linking to pink grapefruit. However, they give all Method hand washes a moderate rating, so I have no reason to believe cucumber is different.)

On the positive side, Method claims that the product is biodegradable, though it doesn’t specify the timeline for biodegradability. The product was also not tested on animals, another plus in my book. Finally, the bottle uses #1 plastic, the most easily recycled plastic there is. Method is also moving its entire product line to using 100% recycled plastics this year, another great thing.

Overall, as much as I would like to use my dollar votes to support a company like Method, I won’t be buying this soap again. There are other similar products on the market with lighter scents and better ingredients, though admittedly I haven’t found one as low in price as Method.

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So what is really in your kids’ toys?

Just yesterday I mentioned all the talk I’ve been hearing among friends and family about lead in toys (to say nothing of the media coverage). While lead is a threat (lead was found in 35% of children’s toys and 38% of jewelry in tests by HealthyToys.org), there are plenty of other things to look out for as well, from both health and environmental standpoints.

What is interesting about lead is that the US government regulates its use only in paints on children’s toys, but it turns up in all kinds of places: in jewelry, shoes, bibs, backpacks, and vinyl toys. So what’s so bad about lead, and the other toxins that turn up in kids’ toys? Well, here’s a quick laundry list:

• Lead – Causes developmental, learning, and nervous system problems.
• PVC – The presence of chlorine usually indicates that polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. PVC contains vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, and also produces dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known, as a by-product. In addition, PVC products very frequently contain phthalates to make them more flexible. Phthalates are found in a whole slew of products, and are linked to hormonal and reproductive problems, breast cancer, asthma, and problems with the kidneys, liver, and blood.
• Cadmium – While lead cannot be used in paint in children’s toys in the US, cadmium can, and is also found in products with PVC. It is linked to low birth weight, developmental disorders, and other problems, and is also a carcinogen.
• Arsenic -A known carcinogen that may also cause problems in the skin, blood, cardiovascular system, and hormones.
• Mercury – Affects the kidneys and nervous system.

If you are concerned about your child’s toys, HealthyToys.org is a good place to find information. You can look up products by name, brand, or type and see the concentrations of the above toxics as well as antimony, chromium, tin, and bromine that are present. While the site stops short of saying how risky a product is, it does provide detailed information about what levels of these ingredients are considered safe (and which organizations set these guidelines), allowing you to draw your own conclusions.

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