A lot of people – especially people with small children or pets in the home – turn to “green” cleaners. Not only are they supposedly better for the environment, but many of them claim to be safe for household use because they don’t use poisonous chemicals. But the truth is that some of those cleaners are just as dangerous as their non-green alternatives, and using them could be bad for your health.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has released information about a cleaner called Mean Green, which is sold at Dollar General, Walmart, Fred’s, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar all over Tennessee. The recall summary indicates that the labels on some of their products claim that there is no ammonia in the cleaner – but that may be a lie. Some of Mean Green’s products may very well contain ammonia, which can release “irritating or toxic gases” if mixed with other cleaners, especially bleach.
Other dangerous products
Luckily no one has been injured yet by Mean Green products, but this is just the most recent example of a “green” product which may be just as dangerous as a more common household cleaner. The Environmental Working Group created a list – they call it their Hall of Shame – of cleaners “loaded with extremely toxic compounds banned in some countries. Some of their ingredients are known to cause cancer, blindness, asthma and other serious conditions. Others are greenwashed, meaning that they are not, as their ad hype claims, environmentally benign.”
Some of the products which made their Hall of Shame include:
- Simple Green Concentrated All-Purpose Cleaner
- Citra-Solv Cleaner & Degreaser
- Spic and Span Multi-Surface and Floor Cleaner
- Febreze Air Effects
- FINISH Glass Magic Hardwater Performance Booster
Each of these products and the others on the list like them either fail to disclose dangerous chemicals, use loopholes to get around safety standards, bill themselves as “green” when they’re really not or outright lie about their contents. These chemicals have been linked to blindness, serious burns and/or respiratory damage, and some of them may have potentially fatal consequences if they are inhaled or ingested.
Being green and environmentally safe is great; just make sure you’re not being taken for a ride. If you have questions or if you think you may have used a cleaning product that wasn’t truthful about its contents, contact Banks and Jones today to talk about it.
T. Scott knows the importance of interacting with colleagues to stay abreast of developments and changes in the legal world. T. Scott frequently teaches CLE courses on trial strategy, teaching other lawyers his methods for success in the courtroom, and is certified as a Rule 31 Mediator in the Tennessee Supreme Court. He is a member of the Knoxville Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, the National Trial Lawyers, and both the Tennessee and American Associations for Justice.
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