Urban Ecoist

Recently, I purchased a bottle of Clorox’ new line of so-called eco-friendly cleaning products by the brand name of greenworks, a cute pun to also make you feel better about buying the product.

The bottle has the reassuring stamps of approval of the EPA and the Sierra Club. It says “natural” in 18 point font above the 12 point “dishwashing liquid”, so it has to be good.

Then I looked at the other side.

Granted, the Greenworks dishwashing liquid works really well. The suds last for quite some time, thus reducing my need to apply more soap to a sponge. I seem the be going through the bottle slowly. The fragrance is rather light, or perhaps that is simply my impression due to allergies. The bottle is easily recyclable (being a #1 plastic bottle), and the bottle states that it contains a minimum of 25% post-consumer recycled plastic. That is great, could be better, maybe, but still pretty good.

However, looking over the listing of ingredients does not quite alleviate my concerns for this product being a wise, ecologically-friendly choice for dishwashing detergent.

Here’s the list:

Water. That’s fine. Citric acid. Sure, even the fragrance with essential oils sounds okay.

Wait, “fragrance with essential oils.” That is an odd use of words. Why not just essential oils? Unless it doesn’t use simple essential oils, but something else? What makes up the something else?

Now onto the not-so-good. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is one of those chemicals that the jury is still out on. According to Cosmetic Database, there are studies going back to 1950’s indicating problems such as skin and eye irritations, animal studies in which mutations occurred as well as problems in both the reproductive and endocrine systems. But it was approved of as safe for both cleaning products, cosmetics, and as a food additive. That kind of creeps me out, that I can use it to create lather as well as puff up marshmallows.

The International Chemical Safety Card goes so far as to say that SLS can be absorbed by the skin and through the lungs. So it is not as if you have to drink the stuff to be exposed. I, for one, don’t use gloves when washing the dishes, but I think I may start.

Just when I think it can’t get any worse, I turn to the Material Safety Data Sheet on sodium lauryl sulfate (also known as sodium dodecyl sulfate) and it says that SLS actually increased the permability of your skin. So the more you are exposed, the more your skin can absorb.

Not sure how “green” greenworks is.

I could not find much info on the alkyl polyglucoside or the coco dimethyl amine oxide. A website for a company called Organix South, Inc. defines alkyl polyglucoside as…

Alkyl Polyglucoside- A mild surfactant base derived from a reaction of cornstarch glucose and a natural fatty alcohol (decyl polyglucose).

And I could find nothing on the coco dimethyl amine oxide, although I did run across a warning about sodium lauryl sulfate when it bonds with an “amine” — a study showed a link to cancer. So with the coco dimethyl amine oxide…oh, I’m sure it’s safe. I am not going to think about it anymore. La la la la la.

Oh, yeah, and corn-based ethanol has been exposed for the fraud it is. Corn is technically a wash when it comes to being a sustainable resource that can replace a carbon based fuel/alcohol. Still I guess it is better than petrochemicals in the soap.

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