In the cleaning spotlight

Over the next few weeks we will be looking closely at some of the every day cleaners on the market and their ingredients. 

Today we will look at Cillit Bang Power Cleaner degreaser.

Marketed as a miracle cleaner but what we're not told is that one of the ingredients is rather nasty. Well in fact a number of the ingredients are very nasty, but let's concentrate on one in particular:

2 aminoethanol

The little gremlin can cause increased blood pressure, diuresis, salivation, and pupillary dilation. Large doses produce sedation, coma, and death. 

Pretty alarming right?

So it's going to be clearly labelled isn't it?

No.

That's right, you read that correctly. This chemical ingredient is less than 5% by volume and so therefore doesn't have to be listed. 

Want to know a bit more about this ingredient? Read on....

Inhalation by humans has been reported to cause immediate allergic responses of dyspnea and asthma and clinical symptoms of acute liver damage and chronic hepatitis. 

There's more, but the report I accessed includes tests on animals that are quite upsetting. Being an animal lover I don't want to include these here. 

So, do you want to continue using Cillit Bang Power Cleaner? By the way, 2 aminoethanol appears in pretty much all of their products. 

You have a choice. Make it wisely. 

In the past 30 years cases of asthma, ezcema and other skin and respiratory conditions have increased massively. Is it a coincidence that in the past 30 years so has our use of more manufactured cleaning products?