Household Products


Tell us what products you looked up, what you found about the health risks, and how you responded to this new knowledge. If they don't have your first product choose another and keep choosing until you find one for which they have information.
I decided to look up two of the many products that we frequently use in our home.  The first item was these Clorox cleaning wipes that we use for almost anything as a way to disinfect.  I found out from the database that this product wasn't as bad as I was anticipating.  The overall health rating score was 1 and the flammability rating and reactivity rating were both 0.  I anticipated the health rating to be worse considering it does have a lot of ingredients and many that I can't even pronounce, however; the database states that none of the ingredients are on the IARC, OSHA, or NTP carcinogen list.  There are health effects if you do get it in your eyes or have a skin reaction, but I also expected that.  The second item I looked up was our dish washing soap.  I was also somewhat suprised about this because the health rating was a 1 and the flammability and reactivity ratings were 0.  I also wasn't surprised about the listed health effects such as skin irritation, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea if ingested.  One red flag was that the manufactures material safety data sheet did not state whether the ingredients are considered carcinogens or not.  I was hoping that these two items would score well because we use them so frequently and on important things, such as the dishes that we eat off of.  
In reviewing your household items: 
  • Were you surprised to find out the toxicity rating of your household products?  I was actually presently surprised about the ratings.  I was hoping they would be good but I also wouldn't have been super surprised if they came back with bad ratings given the ingredients in some of those products.
  • Did you decide to change any of your consumer behaviors based on your findings?  I am actually not super concerned about making a change in products.  I think if the ratings were worse that i would make a change.  I know there are more natural products out there that are better for our health, but there is also the price and convenience that we take into consideration.  I still live at home so a lot of the products that we use for the house are picked out by my parents, so they would really be the ones who would need to want to make the change.  
  • Should everyone know about this risks and why don’t they? I think everyone should know the risks because it could get them to make a change if the health risks are high, or it can be reassuring that they are using a good product.  I use some of those products everyday on a lot of things so if other people are the same way then it is important to know the risks.  I think people don't know because they may not know about how bad the risks could be or even that it would be too inconvenient to look up the products and make changes.











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