What’s Under Your Sink?
- Carpet Cleaners
Extremely toxic to children. The fumes given off by carpet cleaners can cause cancer and liver damage.
- Chlorine
The chemical most frequently involved in household poisonings and a potent pollutant. May cause reproductive, endocrine, and immune system disorders.
- Degreasers
May contain petroleum distillates and butyl cellosolve, which can damage lung tissues and dissolve fatty tissue surrounding nerve cells.
- Drain Cleaners
One of the most hazardous products in the home. Can contain lye, which is a strong caustic substance that causes severe corrosive damage to eyes, skin, mouth, and stomach. Can be fatal if swallowed.
- Glass Cleaners
May contain ammonia. Fumes from ammonia can irritate skin, eyes, and respiratory system.
- Mold and Mildew Removers
Often an acute respiratory irritant. May damage lungs, eyes, and skin.
- Oven Cleaners
One of the most dangerous cleaning products. Can cause severe damage to eyes, skin, mouth, and throat.
- Scouring Cleansers
May contain butyl cellosolve, a petroleum-based solvent that can irritate mucous membranes and cause liver and kidney damage.
- Toilet Bowl Cleaners
One of the most dangerous cleaning products. Can contain chlorine and hydrochloric acid. Harmful to health simply by breathing during use.
- Tub and Tile Cleaners
Can contain chlorine and may contribute to the formation of organochlorines, a dangerous class of compounds that can cause reproductive, endocrine and immune system disorders.
Results of Cleaning Products Toxins
- Naphthalene
A white crystalline compound derived from coal tar or petroleum and used in manufacturing dyes, moth repellents, and explosives and as a solvent. Also called tar camphor.
- Petroleum Distillates
A thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth's surface. Can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax, and asphalt and is used as raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.
- Butyl Cellosolve
Any of four flammable alcohols derived from butanes and used in organic synthesis and as solvents.Carcinogens
Substances that increase the risk of neoplasms in humans or animals. Both genotoxic chemicals, which affect DNA directly, and nongenotoxic chemicals, which induce neoplasms by other mechanisms, are included.
- Ammonia
A colorless, pungent gas extensively used to manufacture fertilizers and a wide variety of nitrogen-containing organic and inorganic chemicals.
- Chlorine
A highly irritating, greenish-yellow gaseous halogen, capable of combining with nearly all other elements, produced principally by electrolysis of sodium chloride and used widely to purify water, as a disinfectant and bleaching agent, and in the manufacture of many important compounds including chloroform and carbon tetrachloride.
- Hydrochloric Acid
A clear, colorless, fuming, poisonous, highly acidic aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride, hydrocholric acid is used as a chemical intermediate and in petroleum production, ore reduction, food processing, pickling, and metal cleaning. It is found in the stomach in diluted form.
- Organochlorine
Any of various hydrocarbon pesticides, such as DDT, that contain chlorine.
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