TIDE: Take the cancer OUT!

Hidden Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in Tide Free & Gentle®

It turns out that Tide Free & Gentle® isn’t so gentle. A report recently released by Women’s Voices for Earth, Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products? found high levels of the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in both Tide and Tide Free & Gentle. 1,4-dioxane doesn’t appear on the product label or on the product website, so consumers have no way of knowing it’s even there!! 

This is especially concerning, because Tide Free & Gentle® is marketed to moms as a healthier choice for their children’s laundry. Infants and children are more vulnerable to chemical exposures, because their immune, neurological, and hormone systems are still developing.

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. 

Procter & Gamble has ignored almost 80,000 consumers and dozens of health organizations who have contacted the company demanding the removal of this cancer-causing chemical.

To do your part to help fight breast cancer during October, join Women’s Voices for the Earth, Healthy Child Healthy World, and MomsRising and demand that Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide) strip this harmful cancer-causing chemical out of Tide and Tide Free & Gentle®!

What is 1,4-Dioxane?

1,4-dioxane is a known cancer-causing chemical, and had been linked in animal studies to increased risk of breast cancer. It acts as a solvent, and is an expected contaminant from other commonly used ingredients like sodium laureth sulfate, PEG compounds, and others. This chemical can actually be stripped out of products effectively. Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide®) reformulated its Herbal Essences® shampoo in 2009 to strip out 1,4-dioxane. Unfortunately, Dirty Secrets test results show that the company has not chosen to make the same effort for its laundry detergent.

Link to Campaign Page & Action

WVE campaign page with Dirty Secrets test results and science: http://bit.ly/ywwTEH 

This is important folks. Join the fight to keep carginogens and other toxins away from our babies and the rest of the family.

Get involved! Show you care.

Free and Gentle ... oh, did we forget to mention that it might cause cancer?

How sweet. Tide Free and Gentle® could easily win you over with this commercial. Especially with this adorable grinning baby. I sure hope the baby isn't really wearing clothing washed in Tide Free and Gentle®, however. If so, this little one might be facing cancer in the future.

Whoa, that's a pretty bold statement, even from Green Grandma, don't you think?

Perhaps, but based on a report from Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE), there is evidence to support the statement. They found high levels of 1,4-dioxane in Tide Free and Gentle®, a known carcinogen! What's equally disturbing is that 1,4-dioxane appears nowhere on the product label or on the product website. You, my dear consumer, are not supposed to know it's there. Angry, yet?

As Tide® continues to market its so-called "free and gentle" detergent to young parents who are trying to do what is best for their families, bloggers like me have an obligation to expose the truth. Plain and simple.

Due to their immature immune, neurological and hormone systems, babies and small children are especially vulnerable to these kind of chemical exposures. And yet, the Tide® website has the audacity to state: Safety: The Most Important Ingredient in Tide®. Oh please.

But how bad is 1, 4-dioxane really?

It is a known carcinogen that has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. It acts as a solvent, and is an expected contaminant from other commonly used ingredients like sodium laureth sulfate, PEG compounds and others.

And, do yourself a favor and check out the Dirty Secrets Test Results, where they expose the true, and hidden, dangers of So, on this Review It Wednesday, rather than offering you a review aimed at making you want to buy something, this one's incentive is to do the exact opposite. In addition to not buying Tide Free and Gentle® , I am also issuing a Call to Action. I am asking you to contact Proctor and Gamble and demand they stop putting 1, 4-dioxane in their detergent! After all, not all mommies and daddies out there are reading GG, so they just might not be aware of the dangers lurking in their misleading bottles of "safe" detergents. Right?

• Clorox (Green Works, Clorox Cleaner, Pine-Sol)
• Proctor and Gamble (Tide, Bounce, Febreze)
• Reckitt Benckiser (Lysol, Airwick)
• SC Johnson and Son (Glade, Pledge, Windex)
• Sunshine Makers (Simple Green)

As consumers, parents and grandparents, we need to make our voices heard. We owe it to our children and their children. Change is possible. But it's up to us to instigate it.

So, on this Review It Wednesday, rather than offering you a review aimed at making you want to buy something, this one's incentive is to do the exact opposite. In addition to not buying Tide Free and Gentle® , I am also issuing a Call to Action. I am asking you to contact Proctor and Gamble and demand they stop putting 1, 4-dioxane in their detergent! After all, not all mommies and daddies out there are reading GG, so they just might not be aware of the dangers lurking in their misleading bottles of "safe" detergents. Right?

I hate to post negatives without countering them with some positive. There are many options outside of buying detergents off the shelf at your supermarket. We use Eco Nuts or Norwex Laundry Detergent, both of which are safe and effective alternatives. My daughters use Eco Nuts or Rockin' Green. If in doubt, don't hesitate to contact me for recommendations.

Reviewing it for you,

Hana