Question from -E-
I came across the EPA’s website Design For The Environment Label and was wondering what your thoughts were on the products they have listed? Thanks for your advice!
Debra’s Answer
The EPA’s Design for the Environment program allows manufacturers to put the DfE label on household and commercial products, such as cleaners and detergents, that meet stringent criteria for human and environmental health.
Their Alternatives Assessments Program helps industries choose safer chemicals by providing an in-depth comparison of potential human health and environmental impacts of the chemicals they currently use or plan to use. For situations in which safer chemicals have yet to be identified as viable substitutes, their Best Practices Program shows workers how to protect themselves and their communities’ health by using chemicals safely and minimizing exposures.
List of products approved to carry the DfE seal
One good thing about this program is that the manufacturers are required to submit the complete product formulation information. All ingredients are reviewed to ensure that the potential environmental and human health effects of prod ucts and ingredients are accurately and adequately identified. Applicants must report all ingredients intentionally added to the formulation, regardless of percentage. This is important because current law does not require disclosing to the public all ingredients of many hazardous products, such as cleaning products, which makes them difficult to evaluate. So seeing this seal, you know that all the ingredients have been considered.
I did spend some time looking for the standards they use when evaluating these ingredients. I went to DfE’s Standard and Criteria for Safer Chemical Ingredients expecting to find maybe a list of acceptable chemicals, and what I found were documents with a lot of references to other documents and requirements for toxicity tests.
Just from this quick look it appears to me that the difference between their approach and my personal approach is that I’m looking for products that clearly have tried-and-true safe ingredients, like soap, for example. It appears at first glance that what this program is looking for is products made with safer industrial chemicals.
