When the ingredients listed on products generalize or simply offer no information, that’s when you should move on. Buy products that offer complete ingredient information AND which state that fact–do not assume all is shown unless it says so. Then you can take the products  home and check each ingredient for toxicity on the internet in many reliable grassroots organization databases . It is safe to say that if the manufacturers don’t tell you, they don’t want you to know. The industry secret reason is nonsense since most labs have the ability to reverse engineer almost any compound.

Take for instance  a common, seemingly pedestrian household cleaner in a can :

It states in fineprint, “If swallowed call a Poison Control Center or a doctor immediately.”

It list a derivative of sodium hypochlorite which is highly carcinogenic and registered as highly toxic. It also mentions on its list without specificity “Anionic surfactants” (anions are negatively charged ions) for which there are several. The really interesting ingredient is “Quality control agents”; frankly, this term should be unacceptable to a consumer–it is an insult to the public’s intelligence. It also lists “perfume” and “color” again without specificity; there are likely irritants within and perhaps further carcinogens.

Interestingly, its creator’s Manufacturer Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) does not address its carcinogenicity. Upon further digging and not shown on its label, I found that it also contains crystalline silica, an eye, skin and lung irritant, listed by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”.

Ingredient labels must be transparent–not a ride ’round and ’round the mulberry bush. Do not fall on its legacy “your mother used it” or “its been a leading brand for decades”. This meaning is emotional and not in your best interest. Honesty endures through the ages.

Manufacturers are not required by law to list all their ingredients on the label. It is truly a “buyer beware” era.