In a day and age when many people are wondering exactly what is in their cleaning products, SC Johnson has decided to come clean with their ingredients list. Last week, the company launched the website WhatsInsideSCJohnson. The website lists the 200+ ingredients found in the company’s products, including Drano, Shout, and Windex.
You may be thinking “So, what’s the big deal?” Well, green activists are pleased because one of their major complaints is that companies such as SC Johnson don’t make full disclosure of the ingredients used. I guess this leads to suspicion by the activists that the some of the ingredients are harmful and that is why the company is “hiding’ them from the consumers. In addition, some have suspected that green products may not be as green as advertised.
So what was revealed? Well, Pledge contains Disodium Ethanoldiglycinate, which can be an irritant to eyes, skin, and nose and is mildly toxic. No big surprise there for me – I’ve always known not to spray Pledge in my eyes! But, Windex contains Propylene Glycol. Propylene Glycol has been deemed safe to use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), but some studies has found that it may irritate the skin and more alarmingly, cause liver and kidney damage.
SC Johnson is the second major products company to come clean with their ingredients, following Clorox’s lead last year. Why did the companies decide to reveal their ingredients all the sudden? It may have been due to pressure from Wal-Mart. America’s larger retailer issued a statement last July 15th that said it would require the suppliers of products to calculate the environmental cost of their products and then those numbers would be used to create a green rating that Wal-Mart will post next to the products.
While the law doesn’t say the companies need to disclose the ingredients, the new Wal-Mart policy is no doubt going to put pressure on other companies, such as Colgate-Palmolive and Procter-Gamble, to disclose their ingredient lists as well.
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