Keeping a clean home is a big step in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but what if the products a person uses to clean their home are part of the problem? According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that researches and advocates for safer products, more than 2,000 cleaning supplies may contain substances linked to health problems like asthma, cancer risk and chemical burns.
These substances are known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are gases that can be emitted from certain products. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the impact of these chemicals depends on how often a person is exposed to them and to what degree they are exposed.
The agency said the concentration of VOCs are often much higher indoors.
One top EPA official said it can be hard to avoid these chemicals because the list of ingredients in cleaning products can be long and it’s hard to tell what exactly you could be exposed to based on that list.
The EPA has made it easier to choose healthier products, though. It has a label a person can look for on cleaning supplies that says the EPA has deemed them a “safer choice.”
The agency also has a dedicated website where people can search for a product to see if it measures up to the EPA’s standards.
