‘Green’ household products aren’t necessarily less toxic, say scientists
Author: Nicole Lin Chang
It’s generally assumed that ‘green’ household products are better for the environment. But is this always the case? New research has found that such products aren’t necessarily less toxic or more biodegradable than their conventional counterparts. So-called ‘green’ household cleaning products are booming, with the global market value estimated at $278.52 billion (€278.31 billion) in 2022. The researchers looked at six different categories of common household products: laundry detergent, dish detergent, mouthwash, insecticide, dishwasher gel and all-purpose cleaners. They took one ‘green’ product and two conventional products from each category and ran tests on them to see how toxic they were, both directly from the bottle and then after degrading them. All the green products tested had images of leaves, flowers or plants on their labels, and many included the terms ‘earth’ and ‘green’ directly in the product name.
They’re typically labelled as being ‘eco-friendly’, but claims of being less toxic or more biodegradable are rarely tested or verified, say scientists from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and The Citadel, Military College of South Carolina in the United States.