You may have seen the commercial on TV for SC Johnson products where they say they are disclosing all their ingredients for products like Windex, Glade, Pledge and more.
I went to their website and easily found this information. I just want to discuss it a bit because I think it’s a great idea and want to encourage more major manufacturers to do the same.
A whole section of their website is devoted to “What’s Inside SC Johnson: A Cloer Look at the Ingredients Inside Our Products.”
Start at Find a Product By Brand. I chose Windex and then Windex Original Glass Cleaner.
Each individual product page has a list of ingredients organized by function. Better yet, you can click on each ingredient and you will get a popup page that tells you what the ingredient is and what it does, plus links to information from various sources that give safety and toxicity data, so you can make your own decision as a consumer. Sources include places like Skin Deep, International Fragrance Association, FDA, EPA, TOXNET, and others. (After looking at a few products, I noticed the same links were on all ingredients, but they don’t point to the ingredient on that site, only to the site itself, you have to search for the ingredient. I would prefer to see a synopsis of the data from these sources on one page).
SC Johnson has their own Fragrance Palette, a list of ingredients they use to formulate their “secret recipe” fragrances. While they don’t specify the ingredients used in each fragrance in their ingredients list, if you see an ingredient on the Fragrance Palette list that you are concerned about, you can call their 800 number and they can “help you with specific product choices.” While their fragrance palette has more than 1500 ingredients, they also specifically list ingredients they don’t use, like formaldehyde and phthalates and “any known carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins listed by the U.S. National Toxicology Program, the European Union’s REACH and Substances of Very High Concern programs, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Carcinogens, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”
And, they also include the MSDS at the bottom of the page.
Great resource!
Did it make me decide to use their products? NO.
But at least I can evaluate them more easily than before. And at least they show what toxic chemicals are NOT in the products as well.
I appreciate the thoroughness of disclosure of ingredients. What is still lacking is an easy at-a-glance summary of the toxicity or safety of those ingredients.
But kudos to SC Johnson for a step in the right direction.
Transparency is always good. However, the fact that they think Ammonia isn’t harmful concerns me.
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
I agree. This is why we still need to know for ourselves what the toxicity is of ingredients, so we can evaluate the ingredients they have disclosed for ourselves.
To me there is a slightly deceptive spin to this. It’s like they’re saying “Our products are so safe, we’re disclosing our ingredients to show you.” But what it showed me was there are still toxic ingredients in their products.
Well they may be disclosing ingredients finally under great pressure from environmental groups. But what does that matter? Look at their ingredients. SC Johnson has a horrible environmental polllution record and they still test on animals even though its not required by law. I dont think this is anything to be admired. I suggest you go to the environmental working group website for a list of effective non-toxic cleaners also recomend leaping bunny or the european coalition in cosmetics website for a list of effective enviromentally friendly non animal testing products. I promise you will not find any SC Johnson products on the list.
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
You’ll also find good nontoxic products on Debra’s List.
I just want to be clear that the ONLY thing I am admiring here is that they are disclosing their ingredients, I am not admiring their products. Because they are disclosing their ingredients we can research the ingredients for ourselves if we want to, and make an informed decision. ALL products should do this.