Washing the dishes. It’s something you probably haven’t spent much time thinking about, but it’s a chore performed daily in almost every home. It starts with a squeeze of dish soap, a few swishes of the sponge, followed by a water rinse. But that conventional dish soap you’ve been using? It doesn’t all wash off. In fact, it leaves toxic chemical residues behind on your dishes and glasses that pose significant health hazards over the long-term.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) evaluated 326 dish soaps and assigned each one a hazard rating ranging from A to F, A being the safest, F being the most toxic. About 65% got a D or an F, including many of the big conventional dish soap brands you might be familiar with. Unfortunately, there are no national requirements to list ingredients on cleaning product labels. Cleaning product manufacturers can use almost any ingredient they want in their formulations, including those that are known to cause harm. If ingredients ARE listed, they can often be vague and misleading. So, how do you identify harmful, toxic chemicals if you don’t have a team of staff scientists to help? Read on for a primer.
Smarter dishwashing starts with recognizing the harmful toxic ingredients that can be left behind on your dishes and/or ingested or absorbed by your skin. Here’s what to avoid:
Here are some smart, simple ways to clean your dirty dishes safely that are also kinder to people and the planet.
Looking for a safer alternative to conventional dish soap? ECOS® Dishmate® dish soaps and high-performance ECOS® Wave® Dishwasher Gel are Safer Choice certified. Made without DEAs, MEAs, TEAs, 1,4 dioxane, dyes, formaldehyde, or phthalates, they safely tackle grease and grime, are gentle on skin, and are greywater safe.
ECOS is so committed to using safer ingredients that we made a list of 500 known toxins – a.k.a. “the Nasties” – that we promise never to use in our products. Check out the list here: The Nasties. We hope it helps guide you to products that are better for you, your home and our planet.
Even though the dishes are rinsed, dish soap for sink-washing and dishwasher detergents for the automated dishwasher will leave harmful residues on the surfaces you eat from. And we will ingest the harmful residue with every bite we take.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) evaluated 326 dish soaps and assigned each one a hazard rating ranging from A to F, A being the safest, F being the most toxic. About 65% got a D or an F, including many of the big conventional dish soap brands you might be familiar with. Unfortunately, there are no national requirements to list ingredients on cleaning product labels. Cleaning product manufacturers can use almost any ingredient they want in their formulations, including those that are known to cause harm. If ingredients ARE listed, they can often be vague and misleading. So, how do you identify harmful, toxic chemicals if you don’t have a team of staff scientists to help? Read on for a primer.
Washing the dishes. It’s something you probably haven’t spent much time thinking about, but it’s a chore performed daily in almost every home. It starts with a squeeze of dish soap, a few swishes of the sponge, followed by a water rinse. But that conventional dish soap you’ve been using? It doesn’t all wash off. In fact, it leaves toxic chemical residues behind on your dishes and glasses that pose significant health hazards over the long-term.
ECOS is so committed to using safer ingredients that we made a list of 500 known toxins – a.k.a. “the Nasties” – that we promise never to use in our products. Check out the list here: The Nasties. We hope it helps guide you to products that are better for you, your home and our planet.
Looking for a safer alternative to conventional dish soap? ECOS® Dishmate® dish soaps and high-performance ECOS® Wave® Dishwasher Gel are Safer Choice certified. Made without DEAs, MEAs, TEAs, 1,4 dioxane, dyes, formaldehyde, or phthalates, they safely tackle grease and grime, are gentle on skin, and are greywater safe.
Smarter dishwashing starts with recognizing the harmful toxic ingredients that can be left behind on your dishes and/or ingested or absorbed by your skin. Here’s what to avoid:
Homing in on the specific chemicals causing the damage, the researchers identified the culprit to be alcohol ethoxylates. These chemicals are often used in detergents and surface cleaners to help displace debris from household objects.
Prior research has found alcohol ethoxylates to be non-toxic to human cells and no evidence has been found to suggest alcohol ethoxylates are carcinogenic or mutagenic. This is the first research to indicate alcohol ethoxylates could have a deleterious effect on gut cells.
New research is questioning the safety of certain chemicals used in dishwashing detergents after intestinal cell models revealed high doses of components in rinse aids can damage gut health.
Its important to note that any actual damage to a human gut is still hypothetical at this point. According to Akdis, the effect of alcohol ethoxylates on intestinal cells seen in the research could plausibly trigger a number of inflammatory diseases in humans.
The new study was published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The dangers of dishwashing detergent
FAQ
Is dishwasher detergent residue harmful to humans?
Is the white residue from dishwashers harmful?
Can residue from detergents left on dishes harm gut health?
Can soap residue on dishes make you sick?
Is too much detergent bad for your dishwasher?
When it comes to detergent, it seems logical that more product would clean better, but this isn’t the case. Too much detergent can leave a residue on dishes, and dishes with detergent residue are pretty unappealing and could even be unsafe to eat from. In addition, excess detergent can cause problems in your dishwasher.
Is dishwasher soap poisonous?
Standard liquid household detergents and soaps rarely cause serious injury if swallowed accidentally. However, single-use laundry or dishwasher detergent packets, or “pods” are more concentrated. Therefore, they are more likely to damage the esophagus. The poisonous ingredients are found in automatic dishwasher soaps.
Are dishwashing detergents safe?
New research is questioning the safety of certain chemicals used in dishwashing detergents after intestinal cell models revealed high doses of components in rinse aids can damage gut health.
Are dishwasher rinse agents bad for your health?
According to researchers from the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research working with organoids, residue from rinse agents on dishes after cleaning in professional-grade dishwashers can harm the natural protective layer in the gut and contribute to the development of chronic diseases