Is Laundry Detergent Toxic?

A New York State Department of Environmental Conservation policy defines a household cleansing product as any product, including soaps and detergents, that contains a surfactant as a wetting or dirt emulsifying agent and is used primarily for cleaning, including the cleansing of fabrics. A February 2018 CPSC staff report described deaths in which all of the victims had swallowed at least one liquid laundry packet, and said the adult victims all had Alzheimer's disease or dementia. A study in the journal Eye of eye exposures to household cleaning products reported to US poison control centers found that, contrary to the overall trend, eye exposures to laundry detergent packets increased significantly and merit special preventive action.

New York limits one contaminant. Its Environmental Conservation Law section 35-0105 says no household cleansing product may be sold in the state with 1,4-dioxane above trace concentrations, and that those trace concentrations may not exceed two parts per million as of December 31, 2022, and one part per million as of December 31, 2023.

Enzymes in detergents have affected workers. A report in Occupational and Environmental Medicine described four cases of occupational asthma among men at one detergent factory caused by amylase, an enzyme used in detergent washing powders, with wheeze developing at work after an initial symptom free period. For shoppers comparing products, the EPA says that before a product can carry its Safer Choice label, it reviews all chemical ingredients regardless of their percentage, and every ingredient must meet criteria for human health and the environment, including carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, toxicity to aquatic life and persistence in the environment.