Do I need to choose a ‘green’ or ‘eco’ brand to clean safely?

Some brands claim they are safer or healthier, but is that true and can some product be harmful if used normally?

No – you can clean perfectly safely without making special choices. The law requires products to be safe and manufacturers risk assess their products to make sure they will not harm people or the eco-system.

Normal use of products is safe

Unfortunately, some green brands have tried to set themselves apart from other products by suggesting that most other cleaning products on the shelves do cause harm to health and damage the environment when used normally. They also often claim to be better because they avoid the use of various ingredients which they claim shouldn’t be used.

Such suggestions and claims aren’t supported by the scientific evidence. If they were, offending products would be taken off the market.

Manufacturers strive for sustainability

Choosing less hazardous ingredients might in principle widen the margins of safety, but if those ingredients are less effective then sustainability suffers. If the margins of safety are already wide, widening them further can be of little practical benefit.

Under the Charter for Sustainable Cleaning, manufacturers look to continuously improve the sustainability of their formulations and products while always maintaining good margins of safely for you and the environment.

Contact the UKCPI on ukcpi@ukcpi.org or call 07843 199397.