Think again.

When Women’s Voices for the Earth released a report noting that Tide detergent contained chemicals that could actually be harmful to kids, millions of consumers were outraged. They were buying the Procter & Gamble (P&G) product to keep their children clean and safe. Yet according to the report, Tide actually contained the cancer-causing chemicals 1,4- dioxane at levels safety experts considered threatening.

Mom blogger and consumer activist Lori Alper sprang into action by launching a petition drive on Change.org.  urging the company to ditch the dangerous compounds.

Today – 78,000 signatures later – Tide capitulated. In response to consumer demand and a lawsuit filed in California by As You Sow, P&G agreed to phase out the carcinogens by September 2013.

“When I started
my petition on Change.org, I knew that Procter & Gamble listened to
consumer feedback, and I was hopeful we could get this dangerous chemical out
of our laundry,” said Alper. “I can’t wait to see what we can do
next.”

Related articles

Women’s Voices for the Earth Champions Healthy, Safer, Non-Toxic Cleansers for Moms and Kids

Protect Us and Our Kids from Toxic Chemicals Now!

Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products

The post Green Consumer Clout Motivates Tide to Clean Up Its Act appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 “Baby Emma just found
out Tide’s toxic secret—and she’s shocked that her favorite detergents are
contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical!

Women’s Voices for the Earth’s recent report, Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products, revealed a secret cancer-causing chemical called 1,4-dioxane
hiding out in both Tide and Tide Free & Gentle – which, appallingly, is
marketed to moms as a healthier choice for their children’s laundry.

Emma decided that Tide can’t hide their secret anymore.
We’re blowing their cover by spreading this
image on Facebook revealing that Tide®
and Tide Free & Gentle® contain
a chemical known to cause cancer.

We need your help to get this photo to go viral. Help Emma convince Tide to take the cancer
out by posting her image on Tide’s Facebook wall
and sharing it with your friends.

 Tide® and Tide
Free & Gentle® are two of the top-selling
detergents in the country, which is why the company doesn’t want people to know
they contain 1,4-dioxane, a chemical known to cause cancer.

You know what makes this even more appalling? (Aside from
the fact that 1,4-dioxane doesn’t need to be in there, and that Tide knows how
to take it out—they just won’t.) Tide Free & Gentle® is marketed to unsuspecting moms as a
“healthier choice” for their children’s laundry! If only those moms knew…

That’s why, even if
you don’t use Tide®, Emma needs your help. There are
millions of people out there who have no idea that Tide is toxic, who are
unknowingly washing their clothes in a product that contains a carcinogen. You
can be the one to open their eyes to this toxic detergent by helping us
spread this image.

 What
is 1,4-Dioxane?

1,4-dioxane is classified as a probable
carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a known carcinogen
under Proposition 65 in California. 1,4-dioxane is sometimes found in products
that create suds, like shampoo, liquid soap, and bubble bath. It is an expected
contaminant when chemicals like sodium laureth sulfate, PEG compounds, and
others are present.

We know that it’s possible to
strip this harmful chemical out of products. Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide)
reformulated its Herbal Essences®
shampoo in 2010 to strip out 1,4-dioxane. Tide Free & Gentle® contains three times
the amount of this cancer-causing chemical!

Johnson & Johnson, another massive
consumer products company, announced
in July that is stripping 1,4-dioxane from all of its products worldwide.
There’s no reason that Procter & Gamble can’t do the same.

 Tide is providing us with the perfect example of why we need
to pass the Safe Chemicals Act, which will actually provide a baseline for what
“safety” means. Because we obviously differ from Procter & Gamble (makers
of Tide®) on what is safe when it comes
to toxic chemicals.

For example, the Tide
website says:
Safety: The Most Important Ingredient in
Tide®. If that’s true, 1,4-dioxane should never have been
in the product in the first place from our perspective.

 But Procter & Gamble continues to claim
that levels of 1,4-dioxane are “safe” in its detergents. The bottom line is that there is no safe level of a known
cancer-causing chemical.

We’re done being ignored by Tide. It’s time to turn up the
volume, and it’s time to take it viral.

Help us reveal Tide’s secret and force them
to remove this harmful chemical by spreading the word all over social media!

**Not on Facebook? You can still take action by sending
a quick email telling Tide to take the cancer out.

 RELATED POSTS

Tell Tide to Come Clean and Ditch the 1,4-Dioxane Now

 Protect Us and Our Kids from Toxic Chemicals Now

The post Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE), a terrific non-profit organization whose scientists keep an eye on the consumer products you buy, has just issued a report that identifies toxic chemicals used by five top companies: Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson and Son, and Sunshine Makers (Simple Green). WVE looked at 20 different cleaning products – and found toxic substances in all of them. If not for this study, titled “Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products?” you’d never be the wiser, because none of the noxious chemicals were listed on the product label.

WVE believes consumers deserve to know what chemicals they are being exposed to so they can easily avoid products that may make them or their kids sick. I agree. That’s why I wholeheartedly support WVE’s call for Congress to pass new federal legislation called the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act requiring cleaning product manufacturers to disclose all the ingredients they use in their products directly on the product label.

I’ve also signed WVE’s petition urging one of the offending companies, Tide, to remove the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane from its Tide Free & Gentle® detergent. 1,4-dioxane is a known cancer-causing chemical, and has been linked in animal studies to increased risk of breast cancer. Nevertheless, Tide Free & Gentle® is being marketed to moms as a healthier choice for their kids’ laundry, even though infants and children are particularly vulnerable to chemical exposures because their immune, neurological, and hormone systems are still developing.

WVE is targeting Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide®) because P&G has taken 1,4 dioxane out of some of its other products, like its Herbal Essences® shampoo. More than 75,000 people have signed the petition asking the company to do the same for Tide and the rest of its products. Ironically, the Tide website says: Safety: The Most Important Ingredient in Tide®. If that’s true, then 1,4-dioxane should never have been in the product in the first place.

Here’s one more important way you can make a difference: use your big green purse. Shift your spending to safer laundry detergents that are free of toxic chemicals. Here are some we sell in the Big Green Purse store; you can also find them in many grocery stores.

Seventh Generation

Ecover

Method

Here are more ways you can take action.

Related Posts:

Your Big Green Muscle is Getting J&J To Make Its Baby Shampoo Safer

The post Tell Tide to Come Clean and Ditch the 1,4-Dioxane appeared first on Big Green Purse.