Issues > March/April 2007 (#119) > Cleaner and Greener Laundry

Cleaner and Greener Laundry

Laundry product manufacturers fill advertising images with mountainous landscapes, wildflowers and clean white sheets flapping in prairie winds to sell the idea that their products will leave your clothes feeling fresh and clean. These images also suggest that detergents clean clothes "naturally," yet manufacturers of laundry products rely on unnatural ingredients, like non-renewable petroleum, synthetic fragrances and chemical whiteners that can pollute your laundry room and the rest of your home.

Waterways aren't immune to these dangerous ingredients, either. As detergents, bleaches and fabric softeners get washed down your laundry room drain, they enter groundwater, where they react with other man-made and naturally occurring chemicals and seep into drinking water supplies. Chlorine bleach, for instance, reacts with carbon molecules to create organochlorines, such as dioxin. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found high percentages of dioxin in water surrounding the San Francisco Bay area. One suspected source: laundry water coming from municipal gray water discharges.

Additionally, because it is such a necessary, frequently tackled chore in many homes, laundry consumes a great deal of energy, which in turn produces greenhouse gas emissions, taking its environmental impact beyond waterways and into the air.

Laundry Chemicals and Your Health

Laundry detergent and fabric softener ingredients pose a variety of health risks, ranging from relatively minor—like skin irritants and allergens—to the severe—cancer, poisoning and neurological problems. Knowing which ingredients to avoid, however, will help you control the number of toxins entering your home.

Laundry Detergents

Laundry detergents and laundry stain removers frequently contain alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), which are common surfactants. Surfactants, or surface active agents, are chemicals that make surfaces more susceptible to water, allowing cleaners to easily penetrate stains and wash them away. APEs can damage the immune system, and they're suspected hormone disruptors, which means they can mimic hormones in the body that regulate reproduction and development. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also warned that ethoxylated alcohol surfactants, such as APEs, may be contaminated with carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane, which penetrates skin. Tests conducted in 1997 by the Washington Toxics Coalition found that supermarket or drugstore labels are more likely to contain APEs than name brands.

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