No surprise, since I’m not a toxicologist. Ingredient lists are especially useful when we want to find out whether a particular ingredient is contained in a product we have on the shelf.īut in this case, I found myself overwhelmed with information. Transparency requirements, brought into being through the hard work of consumer groups like PIRG, give people the ability to research questions like this. The recalled types of Pine-Sol aren’t anti-bacterial, which is probably why the bacterial contamination that led to the recall was possible. By looking at the marketing information and ingredient lists for original Pine-Sol as well as the Lavender Clean, Sparkling Wave and Lemon Fresh varieties, I discovered that, of the Pine-Sol cleaners marketed to consumers, only original Pine-Sol is a disinfectant.
The ingredient lists gave me a pretty solid clue to the riddle of how bacteria could grow in Pine-Sol. In addition, each ingredient has a helpful link to a short description of what function it typically performs in a product and what the human health risks are. The ingredient lists include active and inactive ingredients, including fragrances. The ingredients in original Pine-Sol and other types of Pine-Sol, such as “Lavender Clean,” are available through links on Clorox’s website. There are still ways to find out what’s in that bottle.Ĭlorox, the manufacturer of Pine-Sol, discloses the ingredients in its products online – and has done so for more than a decade. According to the EPA, “manufacturers of chemical products are not required to list ingredients on their containers or make them public.” That explains the lack of ingredient lists on products found on the shelf in the cleaning aisle of the grocery store. But I also bumped into the limits of the benefits of transparency for consumers.įirst, the digging. With a bit of digging, I found the answers. But the news got me wondering: How could bacteria grow in that colorful chemical brew? What do the various versions of Pine-Sol actually contain? What chemicals does any household cleaner contain? And can I find out if they present health risks? I’ve always thought of Pine-Sol as an industrial-grade cleaner, complete with an industrial-grade odor – something that bacteria couldn’t possibly survive in and that probably contained chemicals that were a health risk to everybody who used it.
In October, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that Clorox had recalled several kinds of Pine-Sol cleaners because of bacterial contamination that could threaten the health of people with compromised immune systems.
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