Discover what is hidden behind the detergents labels!

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This blog is addressed to all of you caring people, wanting to know a bit more about your daily-used detergents.

What are they made of? Are they dangerous for the environment and/or the human health?

This blog will give you updates on our ongoing Learn-Apply-Communicate project, developed in the frame of the master program Environmental Management and Policy of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden.
Have a look at the bottom of the page, we have added some interesting information on detergents chemical contents!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

My 2 Cents on Colorants

My discomfort with regulations on colorants in the EU first struck me with an incident completely unrelated to detergents. In fact, I was delighted to be snacking on one of my favorite junk food items, wasabi peas. These are dehydrated peas that have been fried in some sort of wasabi paste mixture. I was commenting to my boyfriend on how they probably contain all kinds of chemicals that might kill me. Naturally, I started preening the ingredient information and set straight about plugging names into Google. This is when I first found out about Tartrazine in the EU.

Tartrazine (E102) can cause allergic reactions in very small number of people, with side effects ranging from hives to headaches. Asthmatics, however, are especially susceptible, and exposure can trigger severe attacks. Further, Tartrazine can play a role in stimulating hyperactive behavior in children. It is not even entirely clear which pathways link to cause these reactions.

So this shouldn't be unnecessarily added to products we consume or come in contact with, right?

Well, apparently Denmark and Sweden believed this and banned a number of suspicious additives. With the overruling of the EU, though, which has deemed these substances "safe," Denmark and Sweden must now allow their use anyway. In fact, they are all over the place: in food, fabric, cosmetics, and detergents.

I have occasionally since pondered on finding the Tartrazine in my wasabi peas, but came across it again just now while investigating the colorants in X-tra Opvask. In this case, the product contains Tartrazine and Brilliant Blue FCF (E133), the former being an allergen and the latter being an irritant. But now I also have had the pleasure of investigating their environmental fates. These colorants are in fact used to make private ponds appear pristine because of their ability to block out certain wavelengths of light that "weeds" and algae thrive on. In other words, in nature these colorants prevent a number of aquatic plants from photosynthesizing. Even worse, Tartrazine is "slightly toxic" to aquatic organisms.

I know that the EU generally prioritizes economic activity over environmental safety, but even over human health? It seems that even if the evidence is ambiguous that the precautionary principle would be wise for something as optional as colorants. I mean, these detergents have huge lists of chemicals to research; but to be fair, most of them serve a functional purpose, be it cleansing, stabilizing, or even conditioning. But colorants are just an unreasonable danger to people and the environment. Get on board, EU!

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