Many common household products contain potentially hazardous ingredients. Here’s how to cut your risk.
1. AIR FRESHENER
Clean the source
Air fresheners can contain d-limonene, a skin irritant, or petroleum distillates, which can irritate the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract.
What you can do: Get rid of the source of the odor and use fresh air to clear transient odors from the house and car. Try baking soda, which absorbs some odors and is essentially nontoxic. If you use an air freshener in the home, use only in well-ventilated areas and do not breathe the fumes.
2. ARTS AND CRAFTS
Choose safer products
Lead, a probable carcinogen and developmental toxin, has been banned from children’s paints. But adult artist’s paints and ceramic glazes can contain lead and other toxic heavy metals. Spray paints can contain propellants such as butane that are extremely flammable. Superglues can contain acetone or methyl ethyl ketone, with fumes that can irritate the eyes and affect the nervous system. Rubber cement can contain n-hexane, which can also harm the nervous system with chronic exposure.
What you can do: Look for water-based paints and glues. Use liquid formulations instead of sprays to avoid flammable propellants. If you use products that contain solvents, make sure your work space is well-ventilated and there are no sparks or open flames, and take care to keep eyes, nose, and skin from getting too close to your work. Wear gloves if you use epoxy glues, and wash hands with soapy water.
Art materials.
Art materials can contain a variety of hazardous substances, such as lead and other toxic heavy metals.
Products carrying the “AP” (for Approved Product) seal of the Art & Creative Materials Institute, a nonprofit association of art and craft product manufacturers, are certified to be nontoxic, though the toxicological tests used are considered proprietary information and therefore could not be fully verified by Consumers Union, the publishers of Consumer Reports.
3. AUTO PRODUCTS
Be cautious with antifreeze
Antifreeze can contain ethylene glycol, a toxic chemical that smells and tastes sweet, and is particularly hazardous to children or pets that may lick it off driveways and garage floors. In 2003 nearly 1,000 people ended up in emergency rooms because of antifreeze poisoning, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Car-cleaning products can also contain acetone or petroleum distillates, which can irritate the skin, eyes, nose, and throat of susceptible people.
What you can do: Dilute any antifreeze spills by hosing them off. Sierra antifreeze contains propylene glycol, a less toxic chemical than ethylene glycol. But any antifreeze becomes a hazardous mixture by the time it’s flushed from a car’s radiator. People who find they are sensitive to chemicals in car cleaners should avoid freshly detailed cars until the chemicals dissipate, and use soapy water to clean cars.
4. BATHROOM CLEANERS
Don’t mix
Toilet cleaning.
Check product labels for cautions about using only with adequate ventilation or avoiding contact with eyes and skin.
Drain openers can contain concentrated sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid, substances that can severely damage your eyes, lungs, and skin. Accidentally swallowing even a small amount can result in injury or death. Toilet cleaners can contain hydrochloric acid, which can also burn skin.
What you can do: Instead of chemical drain openers, try plungers or a plumber’s auger or “snake” to break up a greasy clog or snag clumps of hair. Both are safe enough to use, but they require some strength and skill to use effectively.
To clean toilets, try pouring a cup of liquid chlorine bleach into the toilet bowl. Let it stand for at least 30 minutes, and scrub with a long-handled brush. To disinfect toilets use only about a teaspoon of bleach. But remember to never mix chlorine bleach and ammonia - or any household cleaners - because the combination can produce toxic gases that can cause coughing, loss of voice, burning, suffocation, and even death.
5. KITCHEN CLEANERS
Try baking soda
Oven cleaners can contain sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, both of which are extremely corrosive to eyes, skin, and lungs. Scouring powder may contain chlorine bleach, which should never be mixed with other cleaners because of the risk of forming toxic gases.
What you can do: If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven or one with porcelainized metal, try using steel wool or a nonabrasive nylon scrubbing pad and baking soda as soon as the oven cools; for tough stains, add salt.
6. MEDICATIONS
Lock ’em up
Accidental ingestion of just one pill or teaspoonful of certain drugs can kill a 22-pound child. Special caution is needed with antipsychotics (chlorpromazine, thioridazine); calcium channel blockers (nifedipine, verapamil); opioids (methadone, morphine); quinine derivatives (chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine); tricyclic antidepressants (amitriptyline, desipramine); and certain oral hypoglycemics (chlorpropamide, glipizide). Even seemingly harmless vitamins and minerals can be dangerous in excessive doses.
What you can do: If you have little ones at home or as visitors, keep all medicines and nutritional supplements tightly closed in childproof containers and well out of reach. Consider using cabinet locks and latches to make the contents of cabinets inaccessible to children.
7. PERSONAL CARE
Test before use
Nail-polish removers can contain acetone, which can irritate lungs and affect the nervous system; or ethyl acetate, which can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, and cause numbness. Hair-color products can contain lead, a probable carcinogen and developmental toxin, or p-phenylenediamine, which can cause skin reactions and swollen eyelids.
What you can do: If you use nail-polish removers, do so only in a well-ventilated area and keep the open product bottles away from your face. Try a preliminary patch test of any hair-color product to see if it causes skin irritation.
8. HOUSE PAINTS AND PAINT REMOVERS
Avoid the vapors
Latex paints are a big improvement over oil-based paints. But as they dry, latex paints can give off volatile organic compounds, such as petroleum distillates, that may cause headaches, nausea, or dizziness. Paint removers can contain toluene, a developmental toxin that can affect mental processes and behavior, or methylene chloride, a probable human carcinogen, which if inhaled can be metabolized to carbon monoxide in the body, leading to carbon-monoxide poisoning.
What you can do: Try using commonly available paints labeled as having low levels of volatile organic compounds, not just low odor. When applying any paints or paint removers, be sure to use fans and open windows or doors to create cross-ventilation while working, and don’t stay in the room any longer than necessary.
9. WOOD PRODUCTS
Guard against irritants
Furniture cleaners can contain petroleum distillates that irritate the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. Polishes can contain naphtha, which can cause headache, nausea, and central-nervous-system symptoms with overexposure. In 2004, manufacturers voluntarily halted production of pressure-treated lumber containing chromated copper arsenate (CCA), a known carcinogen used as a wood preservative, but decks, storage sheds, and playground sets built with this lumber still abound.
What you can do: Wear gloves when using furniture polishes and make sure the room is well-ventilated. Never saw or sand pressure-treated wood containing CCA. Wear gloves or wash your hands after extensive handling. Also, be sure to seal items made of CCA-treated wood with a penetrating sealer at least once a year.
10. PEST CONTROL
Minimize use
Pesticides are, by design, poisons. Insecticides and roach killers commonly contain organophosphates or carbamates, which if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed in large-enough doses can cause nausea, tremors, headaches, muscle aches, and, on rare occasions, even death. Synthetic pyrethroids, analogs of a natural insecticide compound, pyrethrum, can trigger asthma attacks and are suspected of disrupting hormone activity in humans. Mothballs work by emitting paradichlorobenzene vapors, a likely carcinogen, which if inhaled can cause headache and nausea, and can be fatal if young children swallow them. Rodent killers typically contain warfarin, a developmental toxin that can cause internal bleeding (though it’s reasonably safe when used as a drug to thin the blood).
What you can do: Try Integrated Pest Management (IPM), an approach that attempts to control unwanted insects by the least toxic means. For instance, unleash ladybugs near rose bushes to keep aphids away. Consider electric mosquito traps that catch and kill some mosquitoes outdoors. Use an insect repellent that contains the lowest concentration of the chemical deet that works for you, and wash it off when you get home. Indoors, set mouse traps and try to find and seal their entry points. Try ant traps and roach traps that use nontoxic ingredients that affect the bugs’ reproduction. Put seasonal clothes in airtight bags and store them in a cool place.
Federal regulations require hazardous household products to bear labels that spell out the possible risks. To find out what these common terms really indicate, read CR's free report on deciphering product labels.
Copyright 2007 by Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. Yonkers, NY 10703-1057, a nonprofit organization. Reprinted with permission from the March 2007 posting of ConsumerReports.org® for educational purposes only. No commercial use or reproduction permitted. www.ConsumerReports.org, www.GreenerChoices.org.
