Product Labeling: Examining The Push For Ingredient Disclosure Laws.
Posted July 24th, 2012
Clean Link
July 19, 2012
Ronnie Garrett
Protecting janitorial workers is a priority for environmental groups lobbying for full ingredient disclosure mandates.
New Yorkers from 21 different environmental groups recently demanded enforcement of the state’s 40-year-old — and nation’s only — ingredient disclosure law for cleaning products.
The state conceded and will soon publish regulations requiring and enforcing ingredient disclosure.
Green Momma Parties Empower Women with Knowledge & Action.
Posted June 22nd, 2012
MomsRising.org
Cassidy Randall
June 21, 2012
Who doesn’t like parties? Especially a party with a purpose – yes, please!
Women’s Voices for the Earth’s new Green Momma Parties are the latest DIY party that makes detoxing the home fun (yes, we said “fun”). With a room-by-room guide for eliminating harmful chemicals, do-it-yourself recipes with how-to videos, and easy ways to raise your voices together for safer products, Green Momma Parties empower women with knowledge, solutions, and action.
But don’t take it from us. Take it from the experts who are on the ground and in the thick of it — the ones who know all about the need to balance responsibility with fun, and the incredible power of moms to make a difference when it comes to protecting our children’s health.
1,4-Dioxane and Laundry Soap: Free and Gentle or a Marketing Free-for-All.
Posted May 22nd, 2012
Scientific American
May 7, 2012
Bill Chameides
More than 80,000 chemicals are produced, used, and present in the United States. This is one of their stories.
“Free of dyes and perfumes” on the label doesn’t mean free of carcinogens.
Independent Testing Reveals Undisclosed Ingredients
Recently the New York Times‘ Green blog raised the spotlight on a report released last November on toxic chemicals found in 20 popular cleaning products. Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental group based in Missoula, Montana, had commissioned independent tests on all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergents, dryer sheets, air fresheners, disinfectant sprays, and furniture polish made by Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson, and Sunshine Makers. The testing revealed that a number of the products had chemicals that are known to be allergens or are linked to reproductive and endocrine disruption … and cancer.
House Parties Launched to Help New Parents Detox Their Homes.
Posted May 15th, 2012
Living Green
May 15, 2015
The national women’s health nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) has come out with a fun way to get rid of toxic chemicals lurking in the home: Throw a party. The organization has been working closely with parents concerned about disconcerting news that unregulated toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, can be found in everyday personal care products, cleaners, and other common household products.
As a result, WVE developed the Green Momma Party. Designed for baby showers, parents’ groups, or get-togethers with friends, a Green Momma Party educates parents about reducing toxic chemicals in the home while empowering them to become advocates for safer products at the same time.
1,4-Dioxane and Laundry Soap: Free and Gentle or a Marketing Free-for-All?
Posted May 8th, 2012
Huffington Post
May 7, 2012
Bill Chameides
More than 80,000 chemicals are produced, used, and present in the United States. This is one of their stories.
Recently The New York Times‘ Green blog raised the spotlight on a report released last November on toxic chemicals found in 20 popular cleaning products. Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national environmental group based in Missoula, Mont., had commissioned independent tests on all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergents, dryer sheets, air fresheners, disinfectant sprays, and furniture polish made by Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson, and Sunshine Makers. The testing revealed that a number of the products had chemicals that are known to be allergens or are linked to reproductive and endocrine disruption… and cancer.
I have to say the findings do not come as a huge surprise. Previous work (see here and here) has documented the ubiquity of toxic chemicals in everyday consumer products. It’s not even that surprising that some of these compounds are absent from product labels. What may be surprising is that the language used to market some of these toxic-containing products suggests that they would be anything but toxic-containing.
It’s party time!
Posted May 8th, 2012
Pregnancy & newborn
May 2, 2012
So you and your friends have done book club get-togethers, wine tasting shindigs and even batch cooking dinners. But have you ever thrown a green cleaning party? No? Well get ready to have fun and get un-toxicated!
The national nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth will launch their “Green Momma Party Guide” on May 11 to help new mothers “green” their house and reduce their infant or toddler’s exposure to toxics in conventional products. Instead of trying to tackle a green house detox by themselves, though, the Green Momma Party Guide makes it fun by giving tips and recipes to throw a ‘Green Momma Party.’ The recipes have been tested by real parents, and are verified by scientific experts to be great non-toxic alternatives to everyday products.
Tide Detergent Found To Contain High Levels Of 1,4-Dioxane, Carcinogenic Contaminant.
Posted May 8th, 2012
Huffington Post
April 26, 2012
Matt Hickman, Mother Nature Network
Now, you probably have enough to worry about as it is with geese colliding into airplanes, Kim Kardashian considering going into public service, and the fact that your teenager may or may be not drinking hand sanitizer, but I thought I’d bring this to your attention: That big jug of non-black market Tide sitting in your laundry room? Well, it contains trace amounts of a substance deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable carcinogenic based on tests performed with lab rats.
According to The New York Times, 1,4-dioxane, a petrochemical solvent found in paints, varnishes, and some cosmetics, has once again, after gaining infamy a few years back, become the questionable household chemical de jour (it’s like we hardly knew ‘ya, phthalates) as environmental and health advocacy groups urge Procter & Gamble to reformulate the massively popular laundry detergent sold in the big orange bottle to contain decreased levels of the cancer-causing chemical.
Procter & Gamble Defends Against Claims that Tide Detergents Contain Carcinogens.
Posted May 1st, 2012
Forbes
April 30, 2012
Amy Westervelt
Last year, in its Dirty Secrets report, environmental group Women’s Voices for the Earth sent 20 different cleaning products out to an independent lab to find out what, if anything, the products contained beyond the ingredients listed on their labels. The results included a number of surprising discoveries, including the presence of 1,4 dioxane, a solvent the EPA calls a “probable carcinogen,” in the two Tide detergents tested–Tide Original Scent and Tide Free & Gentle.
1,4 Dioxane is a by-product of the chemical processes used to formulate the detergents, not an ingredient added to the mix. According to Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research for Women’s Voices for the Earth, it’s relatively easy to remove from a product. “It’s a contaminant from using things like sodium laureth sulfate, not something they add intentionally,” she says. “But it is a fairly expected contaminant. There are certain things that you do you know you’ll get 1,4 dioxane with, and there are fairly easy things you can do to make sure you don’t get it.”
Tide detergent found to contain high levels of carcinogenic contaminant.
Posted April 25th, 2012
Mother Nature Network blog
April 25, 2012
Matt Hickman
Now, you probably have enough to worry about as it is with geese colliding into airplanes, Kim Kardashian considering going into public service, and the fact that your teenager may or may be not drinking hand sanitizer, but I thought I’d bring this to your attention: That big jug of non-black market Tide sitting in your laundry room? Well, it contains trace amounts of a substance deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable carcinogenic based on tests performed with lab rats.
Mothers Challenge a Trace Contaminant in Tide.
Posted April 23rd, 2012
New York Times Green blog
April 23, 2012
Andrew Martin
In their quest to rid cleaning products of toxic chemicals, consumer advocates have now set their sights on Tide, the best-selling laundry detergent.
Last fall, the environmental group Women’s Voices for the Earth commissioned laboratory tests on 20 cleaning products and found what it described as problematic levels of 1,4 dioxane, a solvent, in Tide Free & Gentle (fragrance free) and Tide Original Scent, said Erin Switalksi, the group’s executive director. Smaller amounts of the chemical were found in Bounce Free & Sensitive (fragrance free), dryer sheets that are used to reduce static.
