I am not very good at cleaning regularly, so I am all for easy solutions. Method has developed a shower cleaner that is not only easy, but also green. This shower spray won't clean a dirty shower, but it will prevent a clean shower from getting dirty. You just spray it on anywhere that gets wet after you take a shower or bath, and you don't have to rinse. Why is that? Because the product's formula is completely plant-based, non-toxic, and biodegradable (and therefore non-polluting). Since it doesn't contain any toxic chemicals I expected the label to be comprehensible. To my dismay, organic chemistry names are still confusing. However, Method continued to impress me with good news. On their website they have a list of all of the ingredients and a description of what they are and what they do. Here is a link to the description for this shower cleaner: http://methodhome.com/shop/daily-shower-spray/. How cool is that? Method has other plant-based cleaning products for sale, so honestly give them a try. I found this at my local Stop and Shop, and I assume it would be at my local Whole Foods as well. Happy cleaning!
To be honest, I'm not sure they're as awesome as they say they are (not to burst your bubble or anything...). I was surprised to see that they're using sodium laureth sulfate. I think they might be playing a bit of a word game. They say it is "harmless in use," which could be true, really, because not enough research has really been done to show whether it is or isn't. Research just can't keep up with technology, and there are SO many chemicals out there. But this company seems to be leaving out the fact that sodium laureth sulfate is made through an ethoxylation process (eh, fancy chemistry word, not important) that can produce 1,4-dioxane as a by-product. And 1,4-dioxane is classified by the EPA as "likely to be carcinogenic to humans" (http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris/index.cfm?fuseaction=iris.showQuickView&substance_nmbr=0326) and "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the NIH based on carcinogenicity in animals (http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/twelfth/profiles/Dioxane.pdf). So, yes, the sodium laureth sulfate may in and of itself be fairly harmless (aside from being an irritant), but it may come with some not-so-innocuous chemical friends. Don't know much about any of the other things, but usually "fragrance" is a vague cover-all word companies use to hide what chemical(s) they use, so it seems weird to me that they use that term when they're trying to be all transparent.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess as far as chemicals go, sodium laureth sulfate is far from the worst out there. They can't exactly make a cleaner out of just water, and there are so few definitely safe chemicals out there that you gotta applaud that they're at least making an effort.
ReplyDeleteOH, also, a good resource when looking at this kind of stuff is the Environmental Working Group's Skin-Deep Cosmetics Database: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
I know this cleaner isn't a cosmetic, but it seems to have some overlapping ingredients with cosmetics.
And sorry for the excessive babbling.
Thanks for the chemistry feedback! I know that its always possible that companies are stretching the truth (and usually they probably are) but I can never really tell. Thanks for the resource, that will help me evaluate stuff in the future.
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