GreenSpace: Not as sweet as it first seemed

Clorox is coming clean. Sort of.

The cleaning products giant announced recently that it was expanding the list of ingredients disclosed on its website.

Along with the cleaning agents, solvents, and other stuff in its products - the Clorox Co. makes 409, Lestoil, Pine-Sol, Tilex and its more natural line, Green Works, and more - it now posts fragrance ingredients, the first major company to do so.

This is a big deal because fragrances can be problematic. A 2010 study led by a University of Washington researcher detected 133 fragrance chemicals in 25 common household products, and nearly a quarter were considered toxic or hazardous.

Environmental and health advocates were lavish with praise.

"Clorox's actions go far beyond what's currently required by law or industry standards for ingredient disclosure, and has paved the way for other companies to follow suit," said Erin Switalski, executive director of Women's Voices for the Earth, a national nonprofit that has long worked to clean up cleaning products.

I couldn't wait to delve into some of this valuable olfactory information.

I went to www.CloroxCSR.com and clicked on the fragrance list.

It started with 2-(2H-Benzothiazol-2-yl)-6-(dodecyl)-4-methylphenol.

Whatever that is.

Next was 3-Hydroxy-2-butanone dimer. Another puzzle.

I kept scrolling. And scrolling.

Roughly 1,200 substances later - yes, 1,200 - the list ended.

And unlike other ingredients, these weren't listed in each product. The company simply made one vast list of fragrance chemicals for all its products.

This is supposed to help? What I want to know is whether the products I use are safe. Slamming me with a list of 1,200 chemicals seems designed to obfuscate in a way typical of our digital age: with massive and unexplained information dumps.

Instead of "ocean breeze," do I smell a rat?

Clorox is proud of the move. "We know how important it is to help people make informed choices . . . " CEO Don Knauss said in a news release. He said the company was continuing to "drive transparency."

And Switalski, while conceding the list is "baffling," still thinks it's good. "The bottom line is the principle," she said. "Consumers have a right to know what's in the products they use."

It's clearly valuable for people with allergies. The fragrance chemical d-Limonene, while not toxic, prompts a reaction in many people, Switalski said. So someone could go to the Clorox site - where, sure enough, it's listed - and stay away from Clorox products.

Switalski also used the list to search for other chemicals her group dislikes, such as "polycyclic musks," which are linked to hormone disruption and increased risk of breast cancer. The company had promised to remove them, but she found them on the list.

A spokeswoman explained the musks were still being transitioned out.

Such disclosures are a work in progress, to be sure. And they're happening across the industry.

SC Johnson - maker of Drano, Fantastik, Glade, Pledge, and more - also has disclosed product ingredients, with a promise that it will add fragrance chemicals this year.

I liked how its site - www.WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com - listed not only the ingredients, but said what function each had. A cleaning agent, for instance, or a pH adjuster.

"We would not say this website is perfect and we've got it all nailed," said Chris Beard, SC Johnson's director of public affairs. "We're learning, improving." Soon, he said, the company will tweak the way it describes different ingredients. They want it to be user-friendly, but accurate and thorough.

An interesting aside: Switalski said it's taking longer for companies to add the fragrance ingredients to their disclosure lists because many companies don't make their own scents. They buy them from special fragrance companies. "Hey, buddy, send me over some 'mountain fresh.' " So they might not know what's in them, either.

But I'm still not sure what to do with what looks like information overload.

I don't enjoy cleaning in the first place, and now I'm supposed to make a research project out of it to boot?

I asked Switalski if I could forgo the lists and just use "green" cleaners, but she said that's not the solution.

"There is no legal definition for what green is," she said. "I can't say with confidence that if you buy your favorite green brand, that it's safer. Rule of thumb: Check and see if the company is disclosing ingredients, and play a little detective."

Ultimately, she agreed, we need to make sure the ingredients put into products are regulated for safety.

Meanwhile, "the transparency is good for advocacy organizations, for researchers, for the medical community, the scientific community," she said. They've wanted these lists for years.

At the very least, disclosures "instill more confidence in consumers," she said. "They don't feel like the companies are hiding something from them."

Right. Next time I smell evergreen trees while I'm swabbing the tub, I'll just have to be satisfied with mulling over the 1,200 reasons I have to feel great about it and leave it at that.