DETERGENTS: DO THEY WORK? ARE THEY SAFE?
I worked for ten years as a chemist in one of the world’s largest manufacturers of detergents, beauty products and food. As a detergents chemist (that’s right… there is such a job!), I was responsible for developing new products. It requires a level of geekiness and a good grasp of chemistry and engineering, and in most parts, it was a very fun job – especially when you see the products on the shelves of supermarkets. It’s quite something to work on a product for many months, or even years, starting from scratch, making them in small pots in the lab, and then eventually producing them in 10-tonne tanks in the factory.
So, what can I tell you about detergents? Do they really work? What are they really made of? And are they safe to use around babies and young children?
Having left the job a few years to start Nimble, a brand of cleaning products made for homes with young children and powered by plants, I feel I can now confess some of the things I learnt about detergents and cleaning products to help you be better informed next time you buy them.
Do they really work?
Detergents and cleaning products manufactured by reputable companies are normally quite reliable. Before any product goes to market, it will have been tested and analysed for performance and safety. The best companies are rigorous and disciplined in selecting the right ingredients to deliver the promised benefits – and this is something I’ve taken with me to Nimble.
But sometimes, because of very stiff competition, some manufacturers will go to great lengths to make certain product claims. They’d add extra ‘goodies’ that sometimes may not really be necessary or even perceivable in real life. Sometimes the effect can be seen only in lab conditions or worse still, sometimes there’s no effect at all.
For example, if the pack says that the cleaning product is ‘made with jojoba oil’, one would think it’s really gentle to the skin. But oftentimes it will only be 0.1% of the formula that actually contains jojoba oil – and this is not enough to make a difference.
If they are claiming the jojoba oil is a new ingredient (a ‘new improved formula’ claim) then a good test is to see if they’ve changed other things in the formula in order to improve gentleness to skin – other than just adding a few drops of jojoba oil. If they have fully reformulated together with adding the jojoba oil, then I’d trust it. But if they carried on using an old formula and just added a few drops of jojoba oil, then most likely they are just jumping on the bandwagon with no real benefit.
What are they made of?
Detergents and cleaning products manufactured by reputable companies are normally quite reliable. Before any product goes to market, it will have been tested and analysed for performance and safety. The best companies are rigorous and disciplined in selecting the right ingredients to deliver the promised benefits – and this is something I’ve taken with me to Nimble.
But sometimes, because of very stiff competition, some manufacturers will go to great lengths to make certain product claims. They’d add extra ‘goodies’ that sometimes may not really be necessary or even perceivable in real life. Sometimes the effect can be seen only in lab conditions or worse still, sometimes there’s no effect at all.
For example, if the pack says that the cleaning product is ‘made with jojoba oil’, one would think it’s really gentle to the skin. But oftentimes it will only be 0.1% of the formula that actually contains jojoba oil – and this is not enough to make a difference.
If they are claiming the jojoba oil is a new ingredient (a ‘new improved formula’ claim) then a good test is to see if they’ve changed other things in the formula in order to improve gentleness to skin – other than just adding a few drops of jojoba oil. If they have fully reformulated together with adding the jojoba oil, then I’d trust it. But if they carried on using an old formula and just added a few drops of jojoba oil, then most likely they are just jumping on the bandwagon with no real benefit.
Are they safe to use around your child?
A good way to know if a cleaning product is safe to use around your child is by looking at the warning symbols on the back of the bottles.
When you see an exclamation mark inside a red diamond, it means ‘warning’. The warning can be for one thing or a few things, so it is good to read the fine print.
At best, it’s there to warn you that the product may cause eye irritation, which makes sense because these products are soap after all. Or it could mean the product can cause long lasting harmful effects on aquatic life.
Unfortunately, some of the big leading brands use the red diamond with an exclamation mark when their products are actually very damaging to aquatic life – they get away without using the stronger warning symbol of a ‘dead tree and fish’. This is because the products have to be ‘highly toxic to aquatic life’, not just toxic, before they’re required to use the ‘dead tree and fish’.
It’s a shame that the regulations have not yet made clearer distinctions within one class of warning symbol, it will be an uphill battle to get these changed, so in the meantime I urge you to read more carefully.
Occasionally you’ll come across products without any warning symbol at all. This could mean one of two things; it could mean that it really doesn’t warrant a warning symbol like our Milk Buster and Sticky Stopper, or the manufacturer just didn’t put a warning on the product – intentionally or unintentionally.
What do you do with this information?
I hope by reading this you’re now a little more informed about cleaning products. It’s not meant to make you worry about your cleaning products because big manufacturers, as I said, are normally very responsible.
But as the saying goes ‘knowledge is power’. If people want to know, and have already been given the right to know, exactly what is in their food or shampoo, then I think there is absolutely no reason why people should be kept in the dark when it comes to their cleaning products and detergents. My hope is that maybe with this little step, we can push the whole industry to turn its head and make some changes that will benefit us both as consumers and as inhabitants of this planet. After all, I don’t think we consciously want to expose our children and the environment to potentially harmful products.
With this knowledge I hope you can make more informed choices next time they walk along the household cleaning aisle in your favourite supermarket, and ensure the products you buy are safe for you, your child, and your child’s future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Von Sy is founder of Nimble, the UK’s first and only range of child-friendly household cleaning products powered by plant-based ingredients. Nimble’s award-winning, patented products are available in major retailers including Boots, Ocado and Amazon and are exported abroad.
Web: www.nimblebabies.com
Twitter and Instagram: @nimblebabies
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nimblebabies
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/von-sy-5581b61/